The Boredom
by Rannaty
Summary: dark Bakuralight Marik. AU. Boredom is not always a bad thing if it ends up letting you meet new people and messing up your uninterresting life. Now complited :
1. Chapter 1 First first first

**A/N: **I started writing this under extreme boredom hence the title. I had fun writing this and it killed the boredom!

I just want to say, before you flame me for bashing Yuugi and the gang, it fit in the fic and I have nothing (much) against them. Or Shadi. Okay maybe I have something against him. And cousins (only mine, don't worry).

**Summary: **(dark) Bakura/(light) Marik. AU. They met in a place where neither of them wanted to be. With their past relations with other people and other weird circumstances will they ever manage to attain even some-what normal relationship? (probably not)

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**Chapter one: First meetings**

The day had started out just fine, you're just trying to be calm and not kill anyone, suddenly you're dragged to a place where you least of all the places want to be in. How would you feel if you had to stand people you have a general hatred towards plus some weird people who act like they have a hedgehog in their pants?

The way you'd feel would probably be close to the way Bakura was feeling right now.

You see he indeed was in that very situation.

This morning the white haired teen had been watching TV and listening with half an ear his little brother's babbling about something he and his friends were going to do later that day. That was when Bakura found out that he also was involved in the friendship-y action Ryou and his friends were planning. Let's just say that he hoped that he'd been listening with a full ear instead of a half one.

The friendship-y action contained some lousy music and way too much people jumping around. In other words they went to a concert of some band whose guitarist knew Ryou's friend's cousin's aunt's daughter's best friend. That's the way they had got free tickets and backstage passes. Yay for family/friend relations…

The music sounded like something had died inside the instruments so how come everyone else seemed to have fun? The white haired menace was here only because he had been half forced half bribed to come and "protect" Ryou and the friendship people.

Hmph! Protect yeah right! Like they needed protecting, if someone would try to threaten them they could just pull an Anzu and rant about friendship. That'll scare anyone away.

So under these disturbing circumstances, there he was, extremely bored, leaning against a wall and watching the Gang Friendship actually enjoy themselves by some miracle. There they were dancing and having the time of their lives. Seriously, how could someone possibly be deaf enough to _not_ hear the terrible-ness of the music? Poor Ryou, he'd spend way too much time with those people and now he was corrupted! By _friend_ship! Ugh.

You might have already gathered that Bakura was not a people person. Having lived most of his life with just his little brother around, he was anti-social to the very core. Ryou was the only person Bakura could stand and he was extremely rude to everyone else who had the guts to actually approach him. Most people were smart enough not to come near the intimidating youth, a fact that was just fine with said youth and very good for the most people's health.

But it's always good when you're not suffering alone, right? You know, the more the merrier and all that.

So while Bakura was suffering the effects of way too many people and horrible music, elsewhere someone had similar problems…

………………………..

A tanned blonde boy scanned his surroundings clearly a bit lost and searching for something or someone. The horrid music was giving him a headache and he really needed either an aspiring or ear plucks, preferably both. He also felt the growing need to commit a homicide.

You see he wouldn't be in this situation if it weren't for his _dear _family. Said family had forced him to come to this sorry excuse of a concert to torture him! Well, actually it was to "give him a reason to get out and meet new '_nice'_ people".

What was so wrong with the people he, Marik Ishtar, hung out with? So what if they were a bit 'original' and not really his friends but more like some sort of minions? Okay, where Marik said 'original' most "normal" people would use the word'insane'. In other words: Marik's so-called friends were bloody maniacs and, for some reason, his family wasn't all that fine with it.

So what did his sister and adopted older brother do?

They ganged up on the young Egyptian and sent him to a sorry ass concert with his retarded cousin, Shadi! Life sucked.

Anyway, there he was looking for an exit, something sharp to painfully murder the retarded cousin with and the cousin himself, who had managed to vanish in the crazy mass of obviously deaf teenagers.

While in his quest to find an exit, an aspiring and a Shadi, Marik had, do to much pushing and over-all chaos, somehow got himself near the stage. That was the last place he wanted to be in, that's for sure! He was just about to get the hell out of there when…

"Hey, pretty blond chick!"

Chick? Maybe the drunken unfamiliar male voice wasn't talking to him.

"Yo! I'm talking to you!"

Marik slowly turned his head to look at the source of the voice.

"Yes, you! Wanna party!" If the just poorly hit on Marik wasn't pissed off earlier he sure was now. How blind, stupid and drunk can you get? He was certainly not a woman and that was a terrible pick up line!

While he was adding the unknown drunk to 'Marik's mental list of people to painfully murder in the near future'-list, the drunk had already dragged him through the backstage door.

"I'm a VIP so aahumgph!" was all the not so important person had time to say before passing out on the floor near the feet of the fire-extinguisher holding, sadistically grinning Marik.

"Hmph, idiot."

He placed the fire-extinguisher back on the wall where it had been before it was used to get rid of drunken-people who-mistook-you-for-a-girl and with a quick look around discovered that no-one had witnessed the scene. The loud music and the fact that everyone was too busy having good old merry crazy time took care of any potential witnesses quite effectively. He quickly dragged the knocked out drunk to a shadowy corner where he wouldn't be found so easily.

Since he was already there and the backstage was far less crowded than other concert areas, Marik decided to have a look around. The backstage wasn't very big, it had one hallway where the stressing rooms were and some space where the VIPs could see and listen the band without being seen from front stage. The security personnel were busy elsewhere so there were almost none in the backstage at the moment. Hmph, talk about bad arrangements. Well at least the fact that Marik didn't have a pass wouldn't be a problem.

Maybe he'd find the exit, sharp object and Shadi if he got lucky.

………………………………………

Still stuck in the concert, Bakura was starting to really feel the effects of his current situation. He had to get out or someone would end up seriously injured, preferably that someone would be one of the band members. Hmmm… Maybe the situation wasn't so bad after all…

The evil plan to cause pain and havoc started to form inside the twisted mind of one Bakura when he spotted something, or someone, that caught his interest. How could someone wear so much golden jewellery?

Bakura's kleptomaniac nature kicked in at the sight of so much pretty, shiny gold. He always did have a strange fascination for shiny things.

His now almost predatory gaze was locked at the boy wearing the jewellery, sizing him up and trying to see a way to steal some of the gold.

…………………………..

It didn't take long for Marik to notice that someone was staring at him. It wasn't the usual ogling he had got used to, either. The stare was definitely a slightly menacing one that promised no good for him and he wondered if he should be worried. Was this person some kind of rapist? Why was he looking at him like that?

Marik glanced at the person staring at him, trying to decide if the person was a real threat or not. Hmm, well the guy was wearing blue jeans and a light blue shirt. What kind of rapist would dress himself almost fully in baby blue? The Egyptian mentally scratched out that option. The staring guy also had a white hair that pointed out in weird angles. The hair looked kind of sharp maybe the blue clad boy was planning to use it as a weapon. Marik snickered slightly at the thought then he couldn't help but take another look at the boy. He had to admit that the guy had an intriguing air about him; self confident, arrogant even, and mysterious.

…………………………….

To Bakura's amusement the gold boy had noticed him and was now stealing glances of him. It almost seemed like the guy was checking him out. Heh, fancy that. Maybe the golden guy really swung that way and thought that Bakura was looking at him and not just his jewellery. Then again maybe Bakura really had stopped staring just the shiny jewellery and started looking the boy in general. The boy did wear an outfit that most guys couldn't get away with, without looking gay at least: a purple very short shirt and low riding black pants. The kleptomaniac teen didn't fail to also notice that the other teen had blond hair, foreign looking tanned skin and eyes that matched the purple shirt. Yes, Bakura was very perspective, wasn't he?

It seemed that the person had noticed that Bakura had noticed that he had noticed Bakura noticing him (0.o?) and was now coming towards the paler boy. He stopped in front of him.

" What do you want?" questioned Bakura in his rude manner though he had a pretty good idea what it might be.

"Actually the question is: what do _you_ want? You have been staring at me and I want to know why." Said the boy in a way that told he was used to get his way. The white haired one crossed his arms while continuing to lean against the wall then answered casually.

"I wanted to see if I could steal all that gold you're wearing. What did you think I wanted?" Bakura smirked in his trademark way and a look of surprise passed the others face. That wasn't the answer he had been expecting to get and the smirking teen knew it.

…………………………………

Had he just heard right? The guy wasn't after him at all, just his jewellery? First time for everything… Quickly brain, a good comeback!

"I see…" Gee, thanks… The thief wannabe just continued that annoyingly arrogant smirk of his.

Marik gathered himself and his brain finally started working.

"Hmph I'd like to see you try!" he adopted a smirk of his own when an idea hit him.

" Let's make a deal" this got at least some reaction from the other teen " I give you a shot at stealing my jewellery and you let me use your pointy hair to kill my cousin." The kleptomaniac teen raised an eyebrow at the strange suggestion.

" As if I needed you to 'give me a shot' at that!" the other answered with arrogance " And besides if you want to kill someone using hair you should ask Yuugi or the other pain of existence with pointy hair, if they could borrow theirs'."

"Is that so?" Marik's smirk got wider, this was so much fun compared to the boring time he had had earlier.

" Yeah. See those people with the boy who looks a bit like me?" asked the other pointing in the direction of his brother and the gang. Marik's eyes followed the pointing finger.

"Holy hair!" was his reaction when he spotted the out standing hairdos.

"Exactly."

"You're right, that hair is a security hazard!" this earned a small chuckle of agreement from the other teen.

……………………………………

At least the guy had a sense of humor. Wow, Bakura was almost getting along with another person. The miracles never stop.

The another person spoke again.

"So, how do you know the hair people?" Was he seriously trying to have a conversation?

"They happen to be my little brothers friends." Might as well go with it, at least Bakura wasn't bored anymore.

"That kid with white hair is your brother? Figured you'd be related." Said the other casually. "I have a brother too, but he is adopted so we're not really related. Oh I also have a sister."

"Heh, I almost feel sorry for you; family is a pain."

"You think?" Bakura noticed a hint of sarcasm in the others voice, then asked:

"What did yours' do?"

"They forced me to come here with my idiot cousin. Said something about meeting new nice people." Answered the blond with a hint of bitterness and added as an after thought "I failed to do that since the only person I've met is you."

The thief just smirked at the comment. "Really now? Whatever gave me away?" The other smirked back.

"Oh I don't know" Marik pretended to think. "Maybe it was your arrogant bastard attitude and the fact that you wanted to steal my family heirlooms." He finished with playful fake thoughtfulness.

"Hey, Bakura!" called out Ryou's voice suddenly. "We are just leaving and--" He stopped and spoke to the tanned blonde. "Oh hello! Didn't see you there." Ryou said and smiled politely at Marik. "I'm Ryou, Bakura's younger brother. Who might you be?" he continued with his polite manner.

"Marik, Ishtar Marik."

"Nice to meet you, Marik! My brother wasn't bothering you, was he? He tends to pick on people especially when he's bored and--" Bakura glared at his brother which shut him up. The kid talked too much and was way too polite.

"No no, he wasn't any trouble don't worry." Told the boy, whose name also Bakura now knew, with a polite smile of his own. Yes, that's right; give Ryou all the smiles and save the arrogant smirks to Bakura. Not that it bothered him or anything…

Ryou spoke again:

"That is good!" he turned to face his brother "We were just leaving, you want to come or will you continue your flirting with Marik?" The concert was over? Wait… WHAT!

"I wasn't flirting with him! What the hell makes you think that?" roared the now pissed of teen. Ryou just kept smiling and Marik wore an arrogant expression.

"Well from where I was looking it sure seemed so." Told the innocent boy. Wait a second didn't Ryou just…

"You've been spying on us this whole time?" Needless to say Bakura was peeved, but at the same time he felt kind of proud of Ryou. The kid had spied on them with out him noticing it and then acted all innocent about it. Yes, he had thought his brother well.

"Well not really… more like observing! And I didn't hear what you said either! I just saw you talking and thought I'd see what's going to happen since you don't really converse with people much and… yeah…" ended Ryou his outburst when his brother was giving him the 'you're babbling again' –look.

The look told two things to the younger sibling: to shut up and that Bakura wasn't really angry at him, other vice he would have used his 'shut the hell up Ryou!' –look.

"The concert is over?" spoke Marik with slight surprise. "Funny how time flies when you're having fun, right _Bakura_?"

"I guess so, _Marik_."

Ryou just looked at the two with a smile on his face. It wasn't a fully innocent smile though, more like 'I know something you don't' kind of smile.

"You know, if you are interested in someone and want to know their name, asking usually works." He stated to both older boys, who just looked at him for a minute or two until they began to function again. Marik spoke first.

"I have to go look for my cousin, he must be worried and I still have to kill him." He said like it was completely normal and acceptable to kill your cousin. "Bye" was added with a polite smile, then he was off before the security would discover him, or the body of the drunken person who was previously knocked out with the fire-extinguisher.

"Bye!" called Ryou after him and waved. Bakura just gave a polite glare to his quickly retreating back and turned to Ryou.

"Where is your annoying little gang?"

"Oh they already left, I just stayed to see if you wanted to leave too." Yes! They had already left, whooo!

"Well of course I want to leave! This was worse than hell!" And here he thought that his little brother had a brain.

"And Ryou"

"Yes?"

"Don't you ever embarrass me like that again. What was that talk about me being interested of that jewellery guy anyway?" He was really interested to know that one. That wasn't flirting, they were just trying to… annoy each other with comments and smirking!

"Wellll…" started the shorter white haired one a bit nervously. "I thought that maybe finally you found someone you liked and wanted to help you out knowing that you're not that good with people…" Figures he wanted to help him, that's Ryou for you, but there was something in that answer that didn't quite click. Bakura sure hoped that his brother wasn't going to his 'matchmaking mode' again. Last time, it only caused hospital visits and some bodies.

"Shall we go then?" the little brother asked since Bakura had spaced out.

"Huh? Oh yeah… Let's go!"

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**A/N: **First chapter up of my first fic that is meant to have many chapters! This is only the beginning though 

Your thoughts?


	2. Chapter 2 When family happens

**A/N: **The second chapter! A lot of stuff happens in this one but there isn't really almost any interaction between Bakura and Marik, sorry, but it's still important for the story even if it is a bit boring.

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"_You can never escape from me"_

…………………………

Few days after the concert Marik woke up and found himself on the couch of the Ishtar family living room. He had a habit of sleepwalking so he didn't think much of it and just dragged his tired body to the kitchen in the hopes of breakfast. He found his brother there.

"Morning…" Marik greeted tiredly. Rishid looked at him with a weird expression.

"Slept well? I was just making lunch." Lunch? In the morning?

"You do know that it's already mid day, right?" asked the brother person.

"Yes I do, I just greeted you like that in hopes of messing with your head." After coffee you're already awake enough for sarcasm. The comment was ignored by the bald one who had gotten used to them.

A sound of the doorbell was heard. Rishid continued cooking and Marik was still drinking coffee, no one seemed to react to the doorbell in any way. Then the sound of someone coming in got some reaction.

"Shadi?"

"Who else?"

"He is still alive?"

"Yep"

After this colorful exchange between the brothers, the turban clad Egyptian walked in the kitchen.

"Hello! Oh coffee." Shadi got himself some coffee and sat down on the kitchen table.

This was all part of the morning routine: wake up, go to kitchen, find someone making breakfast/lunch/dinner, have coffee and make some for the intruder too. The intruder was always Shadi who liked to pop out from nowhere to visit them. He had this strange ability to get inside even if the door was locked.

"Hi Isizu!" that was the turban who had spotted the only female occupant of the house entering the kitchen.

"Hello Shadi. Morning Marik Smells good Rishid." She greeted quickly and stormed of again. It was a busy season and the museum where she worked was filled with people. Who would have thought that so many people wanted to spend their summer in a museum?

The kitchen was quiet again, everyone was just satisfied with the things they were doing so there was no need for conversation.

"I need a shower." Stated Marik who had finished his coffee and started to walk out of the kitchen. Shadi turned to speak to the cooking Rishid.

"You will never guess what happened at work today." The other bald Egyptian stayed silent and just listened.

"There were these really weird white haired brothers who ordered a home delivery" Marik, who had reached the door, stopped. White hair?

"The older tried to steal the food! He looked ready to kill me for it!" It was obvious that Shadi was really shocked because of what happened since he was yelling. The blonde one was just curios and amused. Could this be the guy from the concert?

"I'm so lucky the younger stopped him when he did! What weirdos." Shadi ended his outburst with a huf.

That has got to be the concert guy, what was his name? Bakura! How many weird, stealing, white haired people could possibly live in one city?

"The brothers… Did you happen to catch their names?" For some reason Marik just had to find out if he was right about the identity of the "weirdos". He didn't exactly know why but it felt important.

"You don't usually stop to ask the names of people who are trying to slit your throat open." Answered Shadi and looked at his cousin a bit strangely.

"Why you ask?" His eyes widened with realization. "They were someone you know? I should have guessed… you must know every weird person in the city by now."

The Ishtars had just moved to Domino from Egypt a few months ago and Marik had a talent, if you want to use that word, to run into the I-am-a-friggin-maniac type of people.

Rishid looked at the youngest Egyptian with worry.

"You know the person who tried to kill Shadi?"

"I know many people who would like to kill him, including myself"

"Marik…" Rishid said with I sigh. "Can't you just answer the question, seriously this time?"

"I was being serious" He indeed was serious about his answer but that wasn't the answer his older brother wanted to hear. Marik knew his family was worried about his 'original' friends and his sadistic ways but didn't they trust him? He knew what he was doing and could take care of himself! How old did they think he was? Five?

"I met someone at the concert you and Isizu sent me to. He matches the descriptions Shadi gave about the guy who tried to steal the food. I don't really know him. Satisfied?" he didn't wait for the answer "Good. I'm going to shower now, if you excuse me." With that he finally made his way out of the kitchen, leaving the confused Shadi and worried Rishid behind him.

…………………………….

The white haired brothers sat on their living room couch stomachs full of Egyptian cooking. That day Ryou was just too lazy to make them anything and Bakura was just…unable to cook at all, so they had decided to order their meal from the new Egyptian restaurant called The Ankh and Scale. The brothers had always had a fascination towards Egypt because their father worked there as an archeologist.

"Wow that was great! I'm so full!" said Ryou happily, then his expression turned into a more serious one.

"You didn't have to scare the delivery guy so badly though, now we'll never be able to order from there again"

"Tch, if you hadn't meddled we would've gotten free meals!"

"Maybe… but that wouldn't just be right"

Bakura ruffled his little brother's hair fondly.

"Little Ryou. Always so just and brave"

"Ouch, stop it!" Ryou ordered half-heartedly with a fake pout. "You're making fun of me again"

"That's what I do best, among many other things " The older said with pride, an arrogant trade marked smirk on his face.

"Haa haa, very funny" said the younger wryly "Now, oh mighty and all powerful, help me clean this mess" They had created quite a mess in the living room while eating and Ryou didn't like to see the small apartment all messy again.

"Yes ma'am!" Bakura saluted and helped his brother. Ryou just rolled his eyes; he had known his brother for so long that he had learned to ignore most of his stupid comments. He was just happy that when they were alone together Bakura could forget his evil bastard attitude and let his guard down. Too bad he didn't seem capable to do that with other people.

"Hey guess who the delivery guy reminded me of?" asked Ryou suddenly during cleaning. Bakura didn't like the voice his little brother was using; it was the voice Ryou used when he tried to sound innocent and casual, and was actually plotting something. Yes he could plot if he needed to.

"Who?" He didn't really want to know.

"Remember the boy we met at the concert?" Noooo! He had that glint in his eyes, Ryou's matchmaking glint! Please spare me!

Even though Bakura was now in slight panic inside on the outside he looked perfectly calm and just shrug his shoulders to tell Ryou that he had no idea who he was talking about.

"You don't remember?" It was obvious that Ryou didn't believe his brother was telling the truth, which he wasn't. Bakura did remember Marik. He was the smart-ass guy with lots of jewelry, and the almost gay clothing, from the hellish concert.

"Anyway" Ryou continued when Bakura clearly wasn't answering "He had the same tanned skin and accent. You think the boy was from Egypt too?"

"I don't care if he was or not and I don't want to talk about him."

"Who?"

"Marik"

The younger smiled. "I thought you didn't remember him" Well damn. It was clear now that he had thought his little bother too well.

This was the perfect opportunity for Bakura to leave Ryou clean the rest of the mess and storm to his room, muttering something about evil little brothers. He had no intentions to ever meet that golden boy again, but Ryou did have a history as Bakura's personal matchmaker. The little brother wanted the big brother to have someone in his life and who could blame him? It was just that the matchmaking attempts tended to end with tears even if they went well. Like that one time when Ryou decided that Anzu would be a good match… Don't even want to go there, that was just terrible.

So Ryou's matchmaking skills sucked but so did Bakura's attitude. He did not want anyone else in his life; little brother and the always-absent father were all the people he needed.

A knock was heard from the rooms' door and the smaller white haired one peeked in.

"I'm going grocery shopping. Anything you would like?" Yeah, I'd like you to leave me alone.

"Not really"

"Okay, I wont be gone long, bye!" And with that he was off. Ryou usually informed to his brother where he was going, when and with whom so that Bakura wouldn't worry. Worried Bakura was mad, rash and homicidal times ten and no one wanted that.

For some time he just laid on his bed watching the sealing, thinking and enjoying the fact that he got to be alone in the apartment for once. Someone always seemed to be there: little brother and/or his annoying friends, the police, that guy from local mental institution, pissed off neighbor, fireman, someone's lawyer, repair guy, psychiatrist and the list goes on.

After awhile he got bored and decided to go out. He got up and went through the living room to get to the door and to grab his keys and cell phone. Ryou had forgot his cell on the small coffee table as usual.

……………………………..

How dare they sent him shopping! Marik was a bit peeved about the fact that he had to go buy the ingredients for dinner. Rishid had decided to make something exotic sounding and since Isizu was busy, Shadi had to go back to the restaurant and Rishid himself had some preparations to do, Marik was the only one who could go to the local supermarket to get the ingredients needed.

The blond didn't like supermarkets; they were always filled with people who obviously thought that they were the only people on Earth, and the mothers! Did they have to bring all their screaming kids along?

He was scanning the shelves looking for the stuff in the shopping list when someone bumped into his back. He turned around to tell that someone to watch where he was going and met lots of white hair.

"Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't watch where I was going." The white haired head looked up at him and recognition lit the shorter teens face. "Marik! Hi, fancy meeting you here" he said with a smile. Wait a minute… That's the kid from the concert, Bakura's brother. Ryou was it?

"Hello Ryou. How are you?" Marik greeted back. What were the odds of them meeting in here?

"Good and you?" The kid was still smiling.

"Great" Is it just him or does this seem kind of awkward? Ryou was just smiling and looking at him, then to the shelves, now at him again, his shoes and then the boy started to play with the hem of his shirt. Marik wanted the silence to end, but he couldn't just leave: it was obvious that the kid had something he wanted to say to him.

"So… Ryou?" What could they talk about? Aha!

"How's your brother?" That question made the other one happy for some reason.

"I'm glad you asked!" Why was he so happy? "Bakura is fine. Say, would you like to come for dinner?" Dinner? They barely knew each other and Marik wanted to taste some of that food Rishid was planning to make.

"I'll pass, thanks"

"Okay, how about tea?" What was up with this kid? Well, on the other hand maybe that wasn't just a bad idea; if he went to have some tea then everyone would have to wait for their dinner and starve a bit. That'll teach them not to send him grocery shopping!

"Sure, tea sounds nice"

"Great!"

……………………………………

Bakura had walked around aimlessly and ended up in a park. The park was filled with couples enjoying the warmth of summer and each other. He seemed to be the only one in the entire park who still had his tongue inside his own mouth. A flash of loneliness went through him but then it was replaced by utter disgust. He decided to leave the park before all the lovey dovey couples made him sick.

The teen was exiting the park when his cell phone rang.

"What?" He answered the phone in his normal rude manner.

"Good evening. This is Toshiro Hirawa, a colleague of your father" spoke the voice Bakura didn't recognize. Father? What could he want?

"I'm sorry to inform you that an accident has occurred at the excavation site." An accident? The teen just listened as the voice continued.

"Maybe you should sit down" he was still unable to speak. If something had happened to father Ryou would be crushed.

"Hello? Are you still there?"

He let out a 'hm' to tell the other that he was still there. There was an empty park bench near so he sat down with a worried frown on his face.

"In the accident your father was hit by a falling piece of old stone pillar" Bakura could hear the person take a deep breath.

"I'm sorry" No… "We tried to take him to hospital but the site is far away from the nearest town, the stone hit him hard on the head… He didn't make it." Bakura only felt strangely numb when the words sank in.

"He is dead?" he managed to ask, he had to make sure that he had understood right.

"Yes, I'm sorry. We informed you first. Would you like me to call to your younger sibling too or will you tell him yourself?" inquired the person.

"I will tell him" he said andjusthung up.

How could something like this happen?

Bakura wasn't in very good terms with his father; he hated the man for leaving him and Ryou alone. The man sent them some money if they needed it and maybe wrote a few letters a year, but besides that it was as if the guy didn't exist. To Bakura he was just the guy they got the money from and the reason why Ryou had cried himself asleep for so long. But Ryou looked up to his father, loved him even after he abandoned them… He was always so happy when they got a letter from "daddy". Poor little Ryou would be crushed when he heard the news…

How could that bastard do this again? Abandon them and make Ryou miserable! Just like when he left to Egypt except that this time he was gone for good. He had always cared more about some fucking dirt and people who died ages ago than about his sons! And now Bakura had to brake the news to his little brother… How was he going to do it? How could his father leave him in this sort of situation? How could he do this to Ryou?

Somewhere in his rage filled mind, Bakura knew that it wasn't his father's fault. He had died and it had been an accident but Bakura didn't care. He started walking in the general direction of his home. The sooner Ryou found out the sooner he would begin to recover.

…………………………………

Ryou opened the door of the apartment for Marik and himself.

"Bakura! I'm back!" Called Ryou for his brother. No answer. The Egyptian felt a bit disappointed. The little brother was too polite and that freaked him out a bit; he wasn't used to such niceness.

"I guess he's not here… Make yourself at home while I take care of the groceries and make some tea" And with that Ryou disappeared to the kitchen.

Marik went to the living room and looked around. There was a TV in the corner, a couch opposite to it, a small coffee table in between and a large bookshelf filed with books. He walked to the bookshelf and discovered that most of the books were about Egypt. There was also a photo of three people. The smallest of the three was obviously Ryou, who sat on the shoulders of a man, smiling brightly and in front of them stood a younger version of Bakura. He had a happy smile on his face. Everyone in the picture looked so happy…

"Marik?" spoke Ryou's voice suddenly. He had walked in the living room with two cups of tea, placed them on the table and came to see what his quest was looking.

"That's the family photo." Ryou explained with a sad smile.

"The only prove there is that Bakura could actually smile…" His voice trailed of, as if remembering something long gone. The atmosphere in the room was really depressing and the silence almost unbearable.

"The man in the picture is your father?" The silence had got to end! At the question the white haired one snapped out of his walk down memory lane.

"Y-yes. He moved to Egypt sometime ago to work as an archeologist." Egypt huh? That explained all the books.

"Heh, what a go incidence: I'm from Egypt!" Marik exclaimed with as much cheeriness as he could muster to lighten the heavy mood. That seemed to work since Ryou's face lit up.

"Really?" he smiled at him "I suspected something like that but forgot to ask about it before." Was it really that obvious?

"You did?"

"Yes…" The other's smile came down a notch "Oh the tea is getting cold!" That was clearly a change of subject. Wonder why…

They sat down on the couch to drink their tea just when someone barged through the door. Ryou lifted his head and smiled at Bakura in a calm way. Did this guy barge through doors often?

"Welcome back! We were just having tea. Care to join us?" he asked his big brother who looked at him then at Marik. The look on his face told that he wasn't very pleased with what he saw.

"What the hell are _you_ doing here?" Bakura's voice came out as a quiet snarl and his expression was weird: his face was twisted in rage but the eyes were empty. That was one of the scariest faces Marik had seen in his life and that was saying something.

The Egyptian looked at Ryou in hopes of some sort of explanation but his eyes were at Bakura and gave him a very worried look.

"I ran into Marik while shopping" the younger stated "Bakura… What's wrong?"

"You." Bakura was still looking at Marik as he spoke "Leave. Now. I need to talk with Ryou alone."

* * *

**A/N: **This is where I leave you! I don't like to kill anyone but I had to kill the father person for plot purposes. 


	3. Chapter 3 The slow healing

**A/N: **I'm so proud of this fic! It's got more reviews than any other fic I've written so far (4) and it's been added to one C2 community :D Thank you so much everyone who: reads this, reviews, has added to favorites/on alert etc.

This chapter is shorter than the other two because my right hand is suffering from so much typing and I think I got a flu. That also means that it'll take longer to up-date since my hand needs rest and I need to have some other life.

* * *

After barging through the door of his apartment, Bakura was surprised to find the golden boy there, drinking tea with his little brother. This was no time to be having tea! What was he thinking? Then again it was Ryou who invited him there… Stupid kid…

Why wasn't Marik moving? He was told to leave! He just stared at Bakura like he hadn't ever seen a human before. The guy had a weird expression; a mix of fright and… fascination? What the hell!

"Didn't you hear me? I told you to get out!" That seemed to wake the boy from his trance.

"I was invited here by Ryou. You have no right to tell me what to do." He just stated calmly and turned to the smaller boy who looked scared and worried. "Ryou?" The youngest glanced at Marik then at Bakura in inner conflict.

"Y-you should go…" He finally told to the blonde. Of course he would take the side of his brother over someone he barely knew. Long time had passed since he had seen his brother like this.

Marik nodded and stood up.

"Fine I'll leave, see you later Ryou. Thanks for the tea." He started walking to the door but stopped to speak to Bakura before passing him.

"Don't do anything you'd later regret." Was he seriously worried that--?

"I would never hurt Ryou." Bakura stated firmly. He wouldn't hurt his brother, not willingly or on purpose at least.

Marik nodded at him approvingly, sent a last glance in Ryou's direction and walked out the door, shutting it behind him.

After the Egyptian was gone Bakura turned to his brother again.

"Come sit down and tell me what's wrong." Spoke Ryou quietly; he was still sitting on the couch.

……………………………………..

Marik decided to head home via longer route. Dinner- time had passed and he should have been hungry but the teen had so much on his mind after what just happened that hunger didn't feel very important.

The situation had been… odd. What could have caused Bakura to act that way? Sure it was obvious that the guy wasn't very sane in the first place, but this… And the expression on his face…

The boy shook his head. He didn't have time to ponder someone else's problems. It was none of his business anyway.

"_I would never hurt Ryou." _

That sentence suddenly echoed in the young Egyptian's mind. Why? Marik had deemed the older albino as sadistic arrogant bastard the first time he saw him but know it seemed that there was more to him than meets the eye. Anyone who has enough heart to care about his little brother couldn't be all bad, right?

In fact Marik felt quite envious about the close relationship Bakura and Ryou had. He and his siblings used to be like that too when they were younger, before the incident… They managed to re-establish some of the relationship but the damage had already been done.

He finally reached his house and opened the door only to have a worried Isizu attack him.

"Where have you been? We were so worried! You go to the supermarket and don't come back for ages and here we wait half starving and worry about you then you just come home all cool like nothing had happened without any explanation! Have you no shame?" she said in one breath.

"I went to have tea with a friend and lost track of time." He answered casually and went to the kitchen leaving his hysterical sister standing in the hall. She soon gathered herself and followed her brother.

"Marik? Where are the groceries?" Huh?

"Oh." Where were the groceries?

Shit. He had forgotten them at the albinos' place. Ryou had taken them to the kitchen so they wouldn't have to worry about them while having tea. Marik had been in such hurry to leave that he had totally forgot the damned groceries.

"I left them at Ryou's."

"I see… Is he the friend you had tea with?"

"Yeah." He found the left over dinner from the fridge and put it in the microwave.

"A new friend?" Isizu had a hopeful look on her face.

"Yes, I met his brother and him at the concert." The dinner was heated and Marik dug in while still standing, leaning against the kitchen counter.

"What kind of people are they?" The older sister was clearly hoping that he finally had some decent friends.

Hmm... What could he say? The younger one was so kind and polite that it was scary and the older was an arrogant bastard with kleptomaniac tendencies and apparently some murderous intent?

"They're ok, I guess." He answered with a shrug. What his sister didn't know couldn't make her worry. She didn't look very convinced though…

"Ok…"

Marik decided to go to his room before any further questioning could occur.

………………………………..

Ryou was crying. After so long time with out a tear.

As Bakura had feared the news of their father's death broke the kid's heart and now he was leaning against his big brother's shoulder, sobbing and looking for comfort.

The older albino wasn't the best person to turn to when facing heartbreak; he had no idea what to do or say in a situation like this. He just sat there and let his little brother wet his shoulder.

Ryou's reaction, when Bakura told him that there had been an accident and that their father wouldn't be coming back, was very naïve at first:

"_Daddy moved to Egypt for good?"_

The older brother sighed. He had been able to practically hear the kid's heart turn to tiny peaces when the answer to that innocent question was:

"_No! I meant that he's… Dead. Ryou father is dead."_

Maybe he wasn't the most sensitive person. He could have chosen his words a bit differently… Well it was too late for that now. At least Ryou knew and didn't have to hear the news from some unknown person through a phone call.

The sobbing stopped; Ryou had fallen asleep. Bakura picked him up, carried him to his room and tucked him in. After that the older brother turned on the TV when he realized that he hadn't eaten anything since lunch. He went to the kitchen and remembered that his brother hadn't cooked anything for dinner. That was of course understandable. Who would even notice something so insignificant as food at a time like this?

Bakura checked the fridge: yogurt, milk, juice… Ooh, yesterday's leftovers! He threw them in the micro and turned it on just when his sleepy little brother walked in, rubbing his eyes.

"Ryou go back to sleep."

"I heard noise…" yawn "I can't sleep…" Ryou said tiredly and turned to look at his toes.

"Could you sleep with me?" he asked glancing hopefully at his brother.

This reminded Bakura of the five-year-old Ryou: afraid to sleep alone since there was a serial killer living under his bed. Of course the serial killer was just something Bakura had made up and _accidentally_ mentioned to Ryou while telling him a bedtime story. Then again, all Bakura's bedtime stories should be rated M for detailed violence and adult content.

Sigh. "Ok." How could he deny his baby Ryou when he looked so adorable and five-year-old-ish?

They both headed to Ryou's room. The older brother tucked them in and watched the little brother fall to a peaceful sleep using his new big brother pillow. He moved some hair of the sleeping teen's face and couldn't help but fall asleep himself.

……………………………………

The next morning Marik was sent to get the foodstuffs back. It was always better to just do what you're told then to suffer the consequences and he was the only one who knew where the two albinos lived. Well, besides Shadi who refused to go and get killed.

The blonde soon reached the apartment but stopped before ringing the doorbell. What about Bakura and the last evening's happenings? What had happened after he left? He decided to find out and pressed the doorbell once or twice.

The door was opened by who else but Bakura.

"What do you want?" Marik got the feeling of deja vu when he was greeted in this oh so polite manner.

"I forgot my groceries here yesterday. Oh hello Ryou. How are you?" The Egyptian had spotted the younger of the two and slipped past the irritated one to greet him. If Ryou didn't mind him here Bakura would have no choice but to stand him.

"Morning. You came for your groceries?" Something was wrong… The teen didn't smile in his usual way.

"Yes." The Egyptian wasn't sure what he should say and was almost glad that Bakura knew exactly what to say.

"They're in the kitchen, just grab them and go home."

"Don't be so rude to Marik." Ryou stood up to him and Bakura just grunted. What was his problem?

………………………………….

Bakura really didn't need Marik here, too bad that Ryou seemed to like him for some reason… The pain had gone to the kitchen to get the stupid groceries. Ryou vanished to his room leaving Bakura to deal with him. Oh joy…

"What the hell is that smell!" was heard from the kitchen.

"What sme-…" Damn! There was a terrible stink in the kitchen. How come no one had noticed it until now? The Egyptian was holding his nose.

"Are you sure you're housetrained?" The blonde asked from the albino kidding-ly.

Smart-ass. "Shut up and help me to detect the source!"

Oh crap. The day before yesterday's leftovers were still in the microwave! He had been distracted by his brother's childish antics and left the food to go bad.

"I don't think that's eatable anymore." Stated Marik looking at the ex-food.

"Obviously." The white haired one rolled his eyes and threw the food to the kitchen garbage can.

"That's not going to help, you know. It has to be taken out."

"I know that! Since you're just leaving, you do it."

"You can't make a quest take out your thrash!"

"Oh yeah? Just watch me!"

Ryou just walked in only to see the two practically in each other's throats.

"Wah! What are you doing!" He had a reason to be a bit shocked. The scene he walked in was, well…

Bakura looked like he tried to feed the garbage to Marik who defended himself with a kitchen stool. They turned to look at the shocked boy the same time and yelled rather childishly pointing at each other:

"He started it!"

"I see… How come I am the most mature one here..?" Ryou said the last part more to himself then to anyone else.

When the youngest of the three learned that the fight was about garbage, he of course offered to take them out leaving the two alone again, on purpose, no doubt.

They went to the living room and just stared at each other, leaning on opposite walls. Silence.

………………………………..

And some more silence. AAARRGGHHH! Marik didn't like the silence very much so he figured that if he wanted it to end he would have to start a conversation. Yay… What could they talk about?

"So… Have you tried to kill any delivery guys likely?" This got a rather strange expression from Bakura.

"Just one from the Ankh and Scale. Why?" So it was him who tried to kill Shadi.

"I know him; he's my cousin Shadi."

"Really? The one you wanted to murder with hair?" Bakura remembered that?

"Yep."

The atmosphere of the room lightened up now that they had found something they both wanted to eliminate.

The white haired one smirked arrogantly.

"How come he's still alive then? Couldn't kill him?"

"Hmph, it's not like you did any better."

"Ryou stopped me. Besides I only wanted his food. If I really wanted your cousin dead, he wouldn't be breathing right now." Somehow Marik believed him.

"You're pretty much wrapped around his finger, aren't you?" The Egyptian asked referring to Ryou. That, made the smug look on the other's face turn into a frown.

"That's none of your damn busyness." The question hit a nerve! It was Marik's turn to look smug.

"Oh I think you are. You're just not admitting it." He walked to the couch and sat down. "I don't blame you though. Your brother is cute in a puppy kinda way."

"You'd better not touch him!" Possessive over your brother much? Of course Marik had no that kind of interest in Ryou. The kid was bit too nice anyway.

"Don't worry, I'm not planning to." He said with a dismissive wave of his hand "No need to stand, you know, plenty of room on the couch." The blonde patted the space next to him indicating the other to sit down, which he did after some hesitation.

…………………………………

Bakura couldn't believe that they were actually having a civilized conversation. Well at least if you count conversing about topics like 'How to make your family miserable with out actually causing severe physical or mental damage' and 'Ways to drive your neighbors crazy' as one.

The mood in the room was relaxed and casual. The only question was: where was Ryou? It didn't take this long to take out garbage.

"You think we should go look for him?" asked the blonde, leaning against his arm, which rested on the couch's backrest.

The albino opened one eye to look at the other, his head leaned back and feet on the small table.

"He'll come around. I'd know if he was in trouble." They were connected in some weird way, always been.

The Egyptian sighed. "You're really close, you and Ryou."

"It's been just the two of us since…forever."

"Since your father left to Egypt?" How did he know?

"Yeah… Now I guess we'll just be alone for good." Bakura wasn't sure why he had mentioned that to the other. He glanced at the tanned teen who seemed interested in his choice of words.

"What do you mean? Did something happen?" Should he just tell him? Well, he's out to find out anyway…

"He died." He stated simply.

"Your dad?" A nod from Bakura. "Oh…"

"Aren't you going to tell me you're sorry? I thought that's the polite thing to do." The albino didn't really care about politeness much but he felt like 'Oh…' wasn't something you should say after learning about someone's death.

"No. It would be stupid to apologize, after all I didn't kill him or anything." The statement was said without a hint of sarcasm "My parents are dead too…" If the albino's hearing weren't so good he would have missed that part. At that moment he felt that they had found some kind of common ground; they both knew what it was like to lose a part of family.

"Well, at least you still have your cousin." Bakura looked at Marik when he said this and discovered that the Egyptian actually smiled at the rather sarcastic statement.

"Only until someone finally manages to kill him." That made both of them laugh a bit and the previous sad atmosphere was gone.

A sudden 'aawww' –sound was heard for the door of the living room and they both looked at the direction of the voice.

There stood Ryou, looking like he had just witnessed some kind of great love scene.

"When did you get there!" Or more importantly: why haven't they noticed "the audience" before?

"Early enough." Answered Ryou with a small…smile? It was a smile. Not so bright as it used to be but the first one after father's death.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4 Park and pieces of nature

**A/N: **Back with a new chapter! I'm not really sure if I like the way this chapter turned out…

I left the chapter short on purpose. Please read the author's note in the end and answer the questions. (insecurity has got me, help)

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"_Finally. It's began."_

…………………………………………………

What a terrible headache! It was already afternoon and the Egyptian was still suffering from a headache that had started that morning. He tried to take pills for it but that didn't really work. The house was empty; everyone else had somewhere to be. The ringing of his cell was the last thing he needed; the sound only worsened his state. Marik picked it up and answered with the first way that came to his mind.

"What do you want?" There was a surprised pause, then the person in the other end spoke with a voice the Egyptian recognized as one of his so called friends.

"We're having a get together in the park. You coming?" It was the mime, whose name was still a bit of a mystery since everyone just referred to him as "The mime". He had a rather unsuccessful career as a mime because he had trouble in the shut up-ing department.

Maybe some fresh air would help to get rid of the ache. "Ok. When?"

"In half an hour. You don't sound so good, what's up?"

"Nothing." The blonde just answered and hung up.

The park was only about five minute walk away but he now wanted to get out of the house as quickly as possible so he decided to go and wait for the others in the park.

There was almost no one in the park. That's weird; it was normally filled with couples…

The boy walked around enjoying the rather nice park with a small lake and all. The headache was beginning to lessen-

"HELP MEEEE!" Okay, scratch that, it was worsening. The screamer was who else but the lovely cousin person, Shadi. He was running towards the tanned teen like death himself was chasing him.

"I-I… He… Don't…" Well that made a lot of sense… The cousin was out of breath and apparently being chased by someone. Rustling was heard from the bushes they were standing next to and the turban clad Egyptian hid behind the mildly confused Marik.

"Come back here you pest!" The guy emerged fully from the bushes holding a piece of paper in his hand and the younger Egyptian recognized him now. How does he keep running into him?

"If it isn't everyone's favorite bushman." Said the blond tauntingly to Bakura who was trying to get leaves of his hair. The white head just gave him a quick glare and turned to Shadi.

"You. What the hell is this?" He was waving the paper in his hand. There was something written on it with a sloppy handwriting. The turban just tried to cover behind the blond and wasn't answering.

"Let me see." Marik held out his hand and the albino gave the paper to him.

_KICK ME!_

Said the paper and the Egyptian holding it looked questioningly at the teen who still had a leaf in his hair.

"That idiot" pointing at Shadi "tried to tape it on my back."

The situation was just plain stupid; Shadi saw Bakura walking around the park and wanted to get back at him for trying to steel his food, and kill him, that one time. Of course the Egyptian couldn't just go and beat him up or anything like that so he had figured that the paper would make someone do the job for him. When he had tried to tape the paper on the albino's back he had been noticed and ran away. The albino followed behind him taking a few short cuts through the bushes, easily caching up with the turban without even running.

"Why am I the only one with brains?" Marik half muttered half whined after finding out the truth.

"It's not so bad. Maybe you're just the only one with brains in your family." Said Bakura with a consoling voice. Shadi had somehow disappeared after explaining the situation; the guy had a habit to vanish when things weren't for his favor.

The remaining Egyptian over looked the fact that the other had just insulted his family and began walking along the path. Surprisingly, the paler one started walking with him.

"I was going this way anyway…" The kleptomaniac explained without looking at the other. The awkwardness of the albino almost made Marik want to smile.

"Hey…" He stopped walking and Bakura turned to look at him.

"What?"

"You…you still have a leaf in your hair." Said the tanned one quietly and reached out to remove the offensive piece of nature from the white mass of hair. For a second Bakura looked like he was going to back away from the hand, but stayed still and let the Egyptian remove the green leaf. The hair was bit rough and tangled, not so unlike it's owner.

The leaf seemed to be stuck in few of the tangles and was proving surprisingly hard to get out.

"What's taking you so long?" Whispered the owner of the hair.

"It's stuck, hung on."

………………………………………

All leafs be damned.

"I can do it myself, you know." It couldn't be that difficult to remove one tiny leaf. The other just ignored him.

"Help me out, will you. Come closer and bend your head down."

"Don't tell me what to do and let go of my hair."

Marik rolled his eyes then yanked the albino closer and lower from his hair without a second warning.

"Hey!" was the only protest the one yanked could say before he found himself pretty close the other. His forehead hit the Egyptian's shoulder and he nearly lost his balance. To prevent himself from falling down he grab the other's waist. If someone were to pass by and see them, he or she would probably think they were hugging each other.

"Aw, I didn't know you felt that way for me." Kidded Marik while fiddling with the hair.

"Hmph. Hurry up already, I don't have all day." Well actually he did but not everyone needed to know that.

"Shut it; your breath is tickling my shoulder." Told the blond.

"What if I don't feel like it?"

"Then I will pull your hair off."

"Try it and I'll bite you!" That was the best threat the albino came up with in this situation. He wasn't used of being this close to anybody, excluding his brother, and his mind was in bit of a blur.

"Bite me?" questioned Marik. You could almost hear a raised eyebrow in his voice. "That's the best you got? I expected more of you. Now stop talking and tickling me."

"Oh would you like me to stop breathing too?" asked Bakura wryly.

"Yes, that'd be nice."

At this point the white haired boy should have been pissed at the other, but he just sighed and let his head rest against the shoulder. The situation could be worse. Actually, it didn't feel half bad to have Ma-er… _someone _this close, almost petting you.

"Okay, done." Sleepy…

"Bakura?" He knew that voice… "Are you… uh… awake?"

Damn! He almost fell asleep! This has never happened before…

"Yes!" The albino snapped his head up, let go of the boy and backed away in top speed. "Let's just… go!" He started walking again and ran straight into someone. The person looked freakish; sick pale skin, black around the eyes, a few piercings and the guy was shorter than Bakura. He reminded the teen of a… mime.

"Watch where you're going!" The short one spat. Bad move.

"Hey, the mime!" Marik suddenly called to the short-y and at the same time saved him. The white head looked first at the blond then at "the mime". They knew each other?

"There you are, Marik." Spoke the mime to the teen who just gave him a sideway glance before directing his attention towards the now irritated Bakura.

"Meet the mime." he said nodding towards the person in question "He's… a friend of mine."

Snort. "That freak show?"

"Hey, don't-!" the 'freak show' started to protest but the Egyptian just told him to shut up and the guy did.

The albino had certain distaste towards people who took orders from others without a question so he immediately didn't like the mime. He seemed to listen everything the blond said like some kind of servant. Even when Marik told him that he didn't want to meet with the "other idiots" after all, the short guy just nodded and tottered off.

"Are all your friends like that?" He asked the blond.

"They're not my friends." Came the bitter answer and Marik started walking away. "I have to go home." He didn't look at the albino; his eyes were glued on the path in front of him.

"Hey, Marik!" Bakura called to his retreating back and he stopped but didn't look behind him.

"I guess I could stand you around some other time too." The Egyptian turned his head around at this and looked at the caller. For a second Bakura could have sworn that he smiled at him but then Marik turned his head away again, lifted his hand as 'bye' and disappeared behind a corner.

Bakura turned around and began walking in the opposite direction, a corner of his mouth turned slightly up in a half smile.

………………………………………….

Something just happened that made Marik come to a realization; he didn't have friends. He never did. It was all some show they put on to avoid being completely alone. Friends didn't treat each other like he and the re-named idiots did. He didn't give a damn what happened to them and they didn't care about him, they just hanged around him for…what? To avoid being complete losers by having one cool friend? Yes, something like that.

But then there was Bakura… He was different. He was rude, harsh and treated himself like he was the center of the universe. And yet, despite all that, the albino was the closest friend… No, they weren't friends. They were just thrown together by some cruel twist of fate. The thought pained him but he knew it was the truth.

"_I guess I could stand you around some other time too."_

Then there was that one sentence that made all the difference. He wanted to see him again? Isn't that something a friend would say? Well, actually a normal friend would say something like 'See you later'… But the kleptomaniac wasn't exactly normal and neither was Marik.

* * *

**A/N: **I have a question for you who are reading this: Do you like the way this fic is turning out? I feel like I just wrote the first chapter for the heck of it, then turned completely around and started to add a bit too much drama. What do you think? 


	5. Chapter 5 The two terrifying ship words

**A/N: **It's been awhile since the last update (pink) but here it is!

I was just looking at the stats of this fic and (bunnies) noticed that most of the people who read the first chapter didn't read the second (are) one BUT most readers who read (from) the second chap also read the third and fourth chapter. That probably means (hell) that the 1st chap sucked and scared most readers away AND (I hate pink) that, to my great pride, the chapters got better after the first one :) so yay for my improving writing skills! (but like bunnies)

* * *

The TV was on but no one was watching it. Bakura was alone in the apartment, eyes on the sealing and thinking. Ryou had gone off with his friends. The little brother was getting over their fathers death and now he was hardly ever home since he wanted to be surrounded by friends twenty-four seven for reasons the older failed to understand. 

The meaning of friendship had never been clear to the albino for obvious reasons; he hadn't met anyone he could stand longer than he absolutely had to.

But then there was Marik. He somehow managed to sneak in his thoughts and make Bakura re-think his decision of not wanting anyone else in his life. And then there was 'the leaf incident'…

Bakura had already decided that what happened was because of some weird moment of weakness. But the fact still remained that he truly did stand to have the other around and maybe even wanted him around… He had given that some thought and came to a solution: Marik reminded him of himself, in a way, and because he could stand himself and wanted himself around it was only natural that he also wanted the other around. Well, that was what he kept telling to himself at least.

The doorbell rang, snapping Bakura out of his thoughts. Who could that be? Ryou had his keys, he wasn't waiting for a home delivery and the postman never rang the doorbell anymore.

He opened the door and was greeted by someone pushing past him to the apartment. After staring stupidly in the empty hallway for a second he turned to look at the person who dared to barge in only to find nobody. Bakura heard a sound from the kitchen and went to search there, ready to cause injury to whoever invaded his home.

"I ran out of coffee, do you have any?"

"Uh…" was all he could answer to the strangely cheerful invader.

" 'Uh' is not a proper answer to my question."

"Are you drunk?" Bakura asked flatly from Marik who was grinning from ear to ear in a rather freakish manner.

"No, no!" chirped Marik "I almost wish I were though. Do you have coffee?"

Bakura blinked at the weird behavior before answering slowly.

"No… We mostly drink tea…"

The answer made Marik's grin drop a bit.

"I see…" He sat on the kitchen floor Indian style, looked at the floor and mumbled something.

"What? I didn't hear you."

"I drank all the coffee we had." The blond said so Bakura could hear.

"Okay… Why don't you just get more from the store?"

Marik looked up at the other, grin now gone and replaced by an expression the one standing couldn't read.

"I wanted an excuse to come here; I drank all the coffee so I could borrow some from you and now I'm feeling funny…"

That must be one of the stupidest explanations known to man…

"Get up." Bakura told the blond.

"Fine! I just go!" Marik exclaimed, stood up and tried to walk past the other to get to the door.

"I didn't say you have to leave! If I want you out I say so!" He wasn't ready to let the other leave when he was acting this weird.

"Listen. Go to the living room. Sit down. Talk." Bakura instructed firmly.

"Don't treat me like I'm some kind of idiot!" After that outburst Marik just did what he was told and the other followed him.

"I like coffee…"

"I figured. Why did you come here?"

"Well…" The blond started and took a deep breath. "I realized that I have no real friends so got kind of depressed and decided to come here but then I just couldn't without a reason since we don't know each other that well. I wanted to eat or drink something to get myself to cheer up so I drank all the coffee and then came up with an excuse to come and borrow more coffee from you!" That all was said very quickly. It left the albino pretty confused.

"Ok… And that made sense, how?" He asked and Marik looked at him like he was the one acting strangely and made him sigh.

"First of all: you do have friends, I don't know if they're _real _since I'm not a friendship expert. Secondly: you don't need a reason to come here." At this point Marik opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the albino "_And_ thirdly: don't eat to your worries; it makes you fat." He finished with a smirk.

"You mean it?" the blond asked in aw.

"Yes, eating when worried is bad for you."

Marik gave him an annoyed look. "I didn't mean that! The part where you said I don't need a reason to come see you."

"Actually I said you don't need a reason to _come here _but whatever." The other corrected but wasn't really bothered by the 'come see you' –part.

The blond looked a bit embarrassed.

"… By 'you' I meant Ryou and you… So are you all alone in here?"

Bakura turned of the TV before answering.

"Ryou is with his friends."

"Doesn't it bother you?" when the albino just gave him a questioning look he continued. "I mean, aren't you lonely when he's gone?" The other shrugged.

"I'm used to it and besides, being alone doesn't make you lonely if you didn't want company in the first place."

If Bakura didn't have the other's attention by now that answer got it.

"What if…" Marik stopped to think his question through. "What if you're the person whose company you don't want?"

The albino raised an eyebrow at the strange question.

"In that case…" Bakura paused and the other leaned closer to hear his answer. "You have a serious problem since you're the only person you actually need to get along with."

…………………………………….

The answer gave Marik a lot to think about and the room fell silent. Neither of the two felt the need to talk so they just sat back and enjoyed the silence. Time ticked by, that could be seen from a clock on the wall. The blond was mostly staring the floor in thought. The carpet had a nice flower pattern but after awhile it got boring so he glanced at Bakura. He leaned his head on one hand and was looking in to space through half lidded eyes. The albino seemed calm but not relaxed and the blond wondered if this was his natural state. He didn't move aside from breathing but was far more interesting than the flower carpet so Marik let his eyes linger. He vaguely wondered, since the other was almost always wearing the same baby blue clothing, if Bakura could look as good in anything…

"You've been staring at me the past five minutes."

The voice snapped the blond out of his trance. The albino turned to look at him, surprisingly not looking annoyed, just annoyingly smug.

"Am I really that interesting?"

"No! Uh… I mean…" What did he mean again?

"Yes?"

"I mean that… You're more interesting than the carpet!" Nice… Very smooth…

The other gave him a weird look.

"I think that's obvious. Ryou picked the carpet."

"So if you had picked it, it would be more interesting than you?"

"Hmph! Of course not." The albino huffed and continued with arrogance. "Nothing is more interesting than I."

"Nothing is more conceited than you…" Marik mumbled just loudly enough for the other to hear.

"Did you just call me a thing?"

The only answer that question got was a tell-tale smirk and a sound of someone coming in before Bakura had time to return the insult.

"I'm home!" Called Ryou from the door and walked to the living room. The both occupants turned to him.

"Hi Ryou!"

"You're alone? Did you finally ditch the friendship gang?"

"Hello Marik, nice to see you again!" The youngest greeted the quest before replying to his brother. "Actually, I just invited them here for a sleep-over."

"WHAT?"

Ryou ignored Bakura's out burst and continued. "They're coming tomorrow and don't worry I'm sure you have fun too." He went to his room, leaving a shocked brother behind.

The Egyptian looked at said brother, amused.

"It can't be that bad."

"YES IT CAN!" Yelled the other. Marik was surprised by the strong reaction and wondered what kind of people Ryou's friends were.

"I can't believe he did this. Oh well, I _only_ LIVE HERE so why would I have a say in who he invites!" Bakura ranted more to himself than to the blond.

"I DON'T like those people and-."

"Bakura." The albino stopped his rant and turned to Marik who had interrupted him with calm yet firm voice. The blond took the other's silence as a sign to continue.

"You're over reacting."

"No I-!"

"_Yes_, you are. It's not like they can harm you, right? And if they try anything you can just" he paused to form a playful smirk "bite them."

For a few seconds Bakura looked like he was either going to attack or just yell at the blond for mocking his amateurish threat but apparently decided to do neither and instead gave Marik a small smile instead. The smile was gone almost as soon as it came but it left a pleasant warm feeling inside the Egyptian which made his lips turn a little upwards as well.

"You're never letting me live that down, are you?" Asked the albino in fake annoyance.

"Right for once."

…………………………………….

Eventually the little brother came back to join the two in the living room. Magically there was no lecture, or anything like that, from Bakura who had calmed down. Most of the conversation was between Ryou and Marik, with some of other albino's inputs, since the younger wanted to know things like how the blond was doing, how was his family, what did they do for living and other stuff that the older of the brothers hadn't either thought of asking or just didn't care. The conversation stayed neutral when either of the two didn't want to touch subjects that would lead them to more serious maters; family members deaths for example.

Ryou's friends were eventually brought up. At this part Bakura also joined in, mainly to mock them, and Ryou of course stood up to his friends, which caused a not so small argument. The Egyptian sat back and watched the fight turn from a serious one into fake serious and after some time into an utterly childish one, in which the two mainly insulted each other's whatever qualities they could think of. The "fight" ended when Marik just burst out laughing and Ryou explained that this was all usual behavior.

Time flies by when you're having fun, right? Many hours must have passed without anyone noticing since the clock was already nearing midnight and Marik announced that he had to leave before one of his family members called the cops to look for him. It wasn't unusual for the blond to stay out late; it was just that normally when he did someone ended up in trouble.

"It's not safe for you to go alone this late." Said Ryou worriedly.

"I'll be fine, don't worry! I can take care of myself." Assured the Egyptian. The youngest didn't look too convinced though and turned hopefully to his brother.

"Bakura?"

"What?"

"You go with him." That wasn't a question. It's weird how Ryou seemed to want them to spent as much time together as possible…

"He doesn't have to!" interrupted Marik "Besides, how is he going to get back safe then?"

"He'll be fine, don't worry!" Assured the younger albino and addressed the person in question. "Right? You can take care of yourself, can't you?"

"Hmph! Of course I can."

The answer made Ryou smile. Or is that a mischievous grin?

"Great! In that case it's no problem so off you go then!" He said while shoving the two out of the door and handing Bakura something that looked suspiciously like a baseball bat.

"Is that…?"

"It's a baseball bat." Informed the white haired one helpfully.

"I see…"

"Not that I need it. The fact that I have one keeps everyone away." Explained the other with a shrug as it was completely normal to carry one around.

They walked in the fairly quiet streets of Domino, Marik showing the way because the other didn't know where he lived. Neither of them spoke but the silence didn't bother them. It seemed like every other streetlamp was either just blinking a bit or not working at all. The nearer they got to the Egyptian's neighborhood the more lamps were actually doing what they were supposed to do and the light was apparently working full time and not doing some weird version of shift work with the darkness.

After some walking the two were already near the park, which also meant that they were near the blond one's home.

"We're almost there." Marik broke the silence. Bakura looked around seemingly uninterested.

"Nice neighborhood." He stated and gave the baseball bat a swing in the air. The blond shrugged.

"Yea, I guess. It's better than yours' anyway…"

"What was that supposed to mean?" asked the albino with defensive voice. Marik shook his head.

"Nothing. We're here."

Bakura looked at the house and the front yard, the yard had a motorbike with a broken tire and a small lawn. A path led to the door of the house.

"You want me to escort you to the door?" He questioned with mock politeness.

"Why? You think that someone is insane enough to try and attack me in my own yard with the lights on and all?"

"No sane people live in Domino." A maniac like grin formed on Bakura's face when he said this. The hair cast a shadow on his face and with his canines showing, he managed a pretty menacing appearance.

"You're staring at me again." Informed the other and Marik, second time that day, snapped out of his staring mode.

"I'm not staring."

Bakura snorted and the grin was replaced by not believing look. "Yeah right! And Ryou has a rifle and a porn stash in his closet."

"Well, I don't see why that's not possible."

A shout of "Hey! Get inside already!" was heard from the door of the house and both heads turned to see the shouter. It was Shadi in a pink bathrobe, this time without his turban.

Marik slapped his forehead and mumbled something under his breath. Bakura looked at him, then at the bat and finally at Shadi then with a swift movement threw the baseball bat at the pink clad Egyptian. It hit him right in the head knocking him out.

Both not knocked out boys grinned in sync.

"I hope that didn't harm my bat."

"Shadi's scull is pretty thick. We should go check on it."

They walked side by side along the narrow path that led to the door to see if the bat was ok.

"How is it?"

"Only a small lump." Informed Bakura who had picked the bat up, inspecting it.

"Good." The blond sighed in relief and yawned, stretching a bit. The albino glanced at him and said in a quiet voice.

"You should go to bed. Night."

With that he turned his back and walked out of the yard, onto the street and out of the Egyptian's sight who was left standing by the door. Soon after he entered the house, shoving the cousin fully out with the door.

…………………………………………….

The sun shined through the always closed curtains lighting up the messy room. The occupant lay on his bed facing the sealing. It had been one of those nights when Bakura couldn't sleep. All night he had either been sitting in the living room or lying down on the bed. During the sleepless nights he had plenty of time to think, was it a good thing he didn't know. He though about his brother and his slow but steady recovery. Bakura knew that Ryou's friends helped a great deal but it didn't change his attitude towards them. Then again, he hadn't really bothered to get to know them, it was his brother that was good with people, not him, and if Ryou saw them fit to be his friends then so be it.

What about the matter with the Egyptian? It was true that during the relatively small time they had known each other, they had managed to form some sort of relationship aching to friendship. Bakura hated both of the –ship words or more the meaning they seemed to held, never being the one to let others close and having a lack of positive experiences on both of them. If you let people too close, you end up hurt and the thought of someone "too close" was terrifying, the fewer people the better and the albino already had his brother, that was enough. But… There always has to be 'a but' lurking somewhere in the shadows of denial.

"Bakura?" Ryou called behind the door before entering. "Do you want breakfast?"

"No."

"You didn't sleep last night, what's wrong?" Questioned the younger while sitting on the bed's corner.

"Nothing." He still had his eyes on the sealing and the other sighed.

"It's always something when you say it's nothing…"

Suddenly Bakura sat up, climbed off the bed and started walking out of the room.

"I changed my mind about the breakfast."

His escape was stopped by Ryou who had stood up and hugged him from behind, an action that made the other freeze in place like a statue.

"It's ok." Whispered the younger comfortingly. "Just… give it some time, give him a chance. Please…"

For a moment neither moved nor spoke, then Bakura shook his little brother away and continued his way to the kitchen. Just before entering it he stopped and turned to Ryou who was still standing in the doorway to his room.

"Hey kid, you know what I told you about being in my room when I'm not there." That would've been rude if it wasn't for the glint in his eyes that told that he wasn't really angry, quite the opposite actually.

"The kid" smiled and stepped out of the room, following his brother to the kitchen.

………………………………………..

The day didn't start too well for Marik. Shadi was found by the door in a confused state and apparently suffering from a concussion. That raised a lot of questions and the blond was glad that Isizu had to leave to work so she couldn't interrogate too much. She, however, demanded to meet the person who knocked the cousin out but was polite enough to escort her brother through the "very dangerous" city. Rishid didn't talk much, he just send worried glances to Marik's direction and focused in nursing Shadi back to health but eventually he had to take him to the hospital and cover for him at the restaurant. The older one would have told Marik to take Shadi's place as a delivery guy but Isizu had told the blond not to leave the house until she got back for more questioning.

Trapped in the house, the boy tried his best not get too bored. He opened the TV but nothing was on. The blond went to the kitchen to get something to eat and then picked a random book from the shelf and started reading. The book turned out be one of his sister's gay porn books, something about two guys getting it on in the back stage of some concert… The situation reminded Marik about the concert where—

He quickly tossed the book as far away as he could with a horrified expression.

"I did NOT just think that…" He said to himself but felt like he needed more assurance.

"We. Are. Friends… Or maybe not even that… Are we friends?" The Egyptian paused his monologue to think.

"I'm not sure, really. I should ask him… As if he would know any better… I want to be his friend…"

Marik frowned "Marik, you're talking to yourself. Shut up." He told himself sternly and decided to go to his room and relax a bit, maybe take a nap.

His room was in the sunny side of the house so there was a lot of daylight in the tidy room. He flopped down on the bed and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

_Why was his brother holding him? Blood. Where-? What-? Isizu, why are you crying? What happened?_

_FATHER!_

Marik sat up and let out a yelp when he realized that his head was trying to kill him with a humongous headache. His vision was blurry and the only thing he could do was to grab his head with his hands and scream before he felt himself disappear in the dark corner of his own mind.

* * *

**A/N: **Something is finally beginning to happen! There was some OOC-ness in this chapter and stuff I wasn't planning to write but did anyway when the chance occurred. And I got to write some Shadi abuse :D isn't that great? 

Reviews will be greatly appreciated!


	6. Chapter 6 And behind door number one

**A/N: **Does anyone actually read the author's notes? Well anyway, this chapter made me a bit nervous: I felt like it has to be good so I re-wrote…some parts…a few times and I still think it's not good, maybe I'm just a bit too self critical -.-' (Or am I…?) Anyways: read, enjoy if you can, and Review :) :)

I'm _trying_ to come up with a new, and better, summary but if any of you have any ideas I'd be happy to hear (more like read, actually) them!

* * *

The sounds of more people than usual echoed through the apartment. Well, they didn't really echo but they might as well be echoing since the sound was too loud anyway… Ryou's friends had concurred the living room, kitchen, Ryou's room and even the bathroom so the only non-friend-full -zone was the brooding albino's room and that is where he was located. It wasn't so bad, really… Unless of course he needed to eat or use the bathroom…

The little brother didn't bother him, he was smart enough not to, but the same could be said about the others.

As if on cue few of them barged in; it was the guy with stupid hair shaped like a cone and his idiot friend. Bakura glared at them with 'Fuck off or suffer' –glare but they obviously didn't heed his warning.

"And behind door number one" they stopped to snicker and Ryou yelled something at them which they seemed to wave off.

"_And behind door number one_" Bakura spoke with menace and both intruders snapped their attention at him. "Lays a choice; die or die painfully." Then to top that all up he gave his maniac grin. They looked ready to pee in their pants to his great amusement. Too bad that Ryou came to their rescue.

"Sorry about that," he shooed the two out "We were playing truth or dare and they were dared to come and annoy you." He gave a nervous laugh.

"Hmph! I don't even want to know what kind of idiot thought of that." Spat Bakura making the little brother flinch a bit.

"Sorry… I told them to leave you be…"

"I'm not mad at you!" Yelled the older in frustration then took a deep breath to calm down. "Although I should be; you invited _them _after all…"

"What do you have against them, anyway?" Questioned Ryou suddenly.

"You want me to write a list?" Answered the other wryly with a question.

Ryou sighed "No thanks, I'll just…leave. Do you want something? Food or-"

"No, if I'm hungry I can get my own food. You have as much fun as you can with those people." He really meant that with the best intentions; it was nice to know that Ryou could be happy. That may sound sappy but when you only have so little family left you want to take care of them and make sure nothing happens to them. And let's add the fact that Bakura was bit on the possessive side; Ryou was the one, and so far only, person he considered as one of his own and he took care of his own…

Ryou smiled at him "I will. You should do something fun too, you know."

"Like what?"

"Oh I don't know…" the younger trailed of a bit, as if thinking. "Go visit Marik. For example."

"I should have known you'd suggest that…" Honestly, why did he even ask?

"You don't like him? And here I thought that you two got along. Oh well… I just leave you alone then…" He left to join his friends without waiting for an answer.

Bakura had to admit that since the blond came along things had been more interesting and he did like him more than an average person, that wasn't much said because he mostly hated or just despised most people but at least life wasn't such a drag anymore. _Maybe_ having a friend wouldn't be so bad after all…and he could always use Marik as an excuse to get out of the apartment anytime; Ryou would be happy that he got out instead of worrying about him doing something not so legal!

Speaking of getting out, Bakura decided to actually follow his little brother's suggestion and go give the Egyptian a visit. It's not like the blond seemed to mind people suddenly dropping by.

When quickly exiting the apartment he informed where he was going, Ryou beamed, and noticed that the gang was watching Sponge Bob The Movie… Bakura exited a little faster.

Walking down the street he saw a lot of people; gangs of similarly dressed teens, couples holding hands, busy people doing their jobs. Maybe he should get a job… No, actually he needed to get one since neither of them knew how long they could get by with just the money their father made, which wasn't a small amount but still… Some of the money would have to be used for the funeral too… Neither them wanted talk about that yet but they'd have to, eventually. And then there was school; they had summer break now but it would start at some point since nothing good ever lasts forever.

He was just by the park now. That same park had somehow become a place of importance; both times he had been there something that messed with his life had happened and there he was again, wondering how he should go with this visiting busyness. You see; paying someone a _friendly_ visit was a new concept to Bakura, something he had no personal experience of. After walking around the park awhile he decided to just go and do whatever appeared to be the best course of action if someone was there in the first place. It wasn't a very detailed or brilliant plan but it was one that couldn't go wrong.

……………………………………..

_What is going on? Who are you?_

"_Don't you recognize me? I'm you of course."_

_No! That's not possible. I'm me!_

"_Heh heh, I wouldn't lie to **me** now would I?"_

_SHUT UP! Let me out! Let me out, let me out LET ME OUT!_

"_Calm down. I'm only going to help you. Like last time, remember?"_

_Last…time?_

"_Yes. I'll help you, well me, to do things you want to do but are too afraid to. I can do everything you can't."_

_Help…me…? What do you mean? Help with what?_

"…"

_Answer me!_

"_Don't worry about a thing. Trust me."_

_Why should I?_

"_I helped you out with father, didn't I?"_

……………………………………

Nearing the front door of the house the albino noted that it was awfully quiet and that the motorbike no longer had just a broken tire; it looked more banged up. A lone gnome he hadn't noticed last night stared at him with a creepy smile and he gave it a quick glare before reaching the door.

Bakura rang the doorbell and waited for someone to come and open the door. When no one came he ringed again. Again no answer. He figured that anyone wasn't home and turned to leave when he realized that the door was already open. Bakura had an aching feeling that he had seen this scene in a horror movie more than few times; the door magically opens and the person steps in, only to get brutally murdered by a guy with an axe/chain saw/ knife/ bare hands but lots of insanity or/and very sharp teeth/fingernails. Of course there wasn't really anything magical with the door being left open…

He turned to leave but then he spotted the creepy gnome again. It somehow managed to stare at him and smile its' smile that was supposed to say 'I'm a happy and kind little gnome' but instead seemed to be more of a 'I'm an insane little bastard with murderous intent' kind of smile. Needless to say that was pretty scary so Bakura decided to go inside after all. It was better to be a victim in a horror called Crazy Axe Murderer than in Revenge of The Gnomes, so to speak.

Once inside he started to look around, after all he had never been there before. The house had more space than he had used to but then again Marik did live with more people than he and, obviously, wealthier people. The teen entered the living room, which at first didn't seem to have anything interesting. Then he spotted a book on the floor near the far wall. It looked like it had been just tossed there but everything else in the room was neatly in place.

Bakura picked the book up and curiously read the summary in the back cover. It's said that curiosity killed the cat but, fortunately, it only managed to make the boy raise his eyebrow at the words: 'Steamy boyxboy action at the back stage'

"This summary sucks." He mumbled to himself before dropping the book back on the floor, vaguely wondering who had tossed it there.

There were stairs leading to the second floor and Bakura decided to inspect it as well. Why would he pass up a perfectly good chance to sneak around in some else's house without permission?

Reaching the top of the stairs he found that there were a few bedrooms and a bathroom. He went farer down the hallway when one of the doors burst open with enough force to push the albino against the opposite wall. He felt something sharp slice his cheek and heard a sharp thud noise when it hit the wall, just low enough not to slice his ear off. Bakura raised his hand to touch the cheek only to discover that it was bleeding before a blur of blond hair and purple cape pinned him to the wall.

"What the hell!" He heard himself yell then the pinned teen got a good look at his attacker for the first time. His eyes widened when he saw a familiar, but somehow unfamiliar, face that had an insane grin on.

"Marik?"

The grin widened. "Hello, Bakura." He greeted with a voice darker than the voice the other had got used to and leaned in.

"Wha-!"

A warm tongue licked the blood off from Bakura's cheek and the owner of said tongue made a 'mmm' noise.

"Delicious." He whispered, breath tickling the paler one's ear.

A sound of someone coming in and shouting "Marik? Are you home? Why is the door open?" distracted the blond and the albino took a chance to follow his self defend instinct. He kneed the strange new Marik to stomach, pushed him back to the room he had came from and shut the door. Then he pulled the knife off the wall and used it to lock the door from out side. Good thing that he was so handy with locks.

"Fucking shit…" He mumbled before sprinting down the stairs. Down stairs the teen collided with a rather tall and tanned bald man.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" The man asked with surprising calmness.

"What the hell is wrong with Marik?" Bellowed the teen with not so surprising panic. This seemed to alarm the man as his expression changed and he spoke with worry.

"There's something wrong with him?"

"YES! He tried to- I don't know! And he had this dark voice and a frigging CAPE!"

The man's eyes went wide and he grabbed Bakura by his shoulders, giving him a slight shook

"Calm down! Tell me what happened. Where is Marik now?"

Before answering the pale boy took a breath to gather himself and his thoughts. It was not like he hadn't been attacked before, it was just shocking that the person he had almost come to consider as his friend had tried to either: a) kill him or b) rape him.

"Uh… He attacked me with a knife." Not to mention tongue… "I locked him upstairs."

The man looked more worried than before and sprung to action, sitting the teen on the bottom step and while digging out his cell phone gave Bakura a short explanation.

"Listen; Marik has a double personality disorder. He's dangerous and not his self. I'm calling Isizu to tell her what's going on. You… just stay put."

Bakura needed sometime to progress this new information so he actually stayed put and took time to think the new strange twist over. A question of why hadn't he found out sooner flashed through his mind. The answer was quite obvious; they had known each other for such a small time and he doubted that the other would go: 'Hey guess what? I have two personalities!' all of a sudden.

Soon after the phone call ended a woman glad in old Egyptian clothing barged in.

"Where is he? What happened? Who are you?" The last question was directed to the pale youth who now stood up, tired of sitting and people just asking questions.

"I never caught your names either!" He yelled in frustration and anger. "But let me guess; you're the older sister Isizu and you're the adopted older brother Rishid. Am I right?" The two changed glances.

"Yes, you are correct." Spoke Isizu. "You must be Bakura, we have… _heard_ about you." Her tone was kind of cold as she said this making the albino wonder what, exactly, had they heard and from whom.

"My reputation precedes me." He stated wryly and she furrowed her eyebrows at the statement.

"It does… But we have no time to waste. Rishid, we still have the medicines from last time, don't we?"

"Yes, I go get them."

"Last time?" Questioned Bakura once the bald one had left.

The woman turned to him looking a bit distressed. "This has happened once before… A long time ago. The family doctor put him on medication and the other Marik went away… We thought that he was cured, we really hoped that…" She sighed and wiped her eyes. "I don't know what brought his other personality back but we still don't want to put him in an institution." Her voice and expression were determinate when she looked at the albino. That's when Rishid came back with the meds.

"Found them. How are we going to get him to take them?" He asked holding a bottle containing something that looked like pills.

"That does form a problem…" Mused Isizu.

Bakura had been silent, just looking at the siblings slightly under his brow. He had figured a way to get the pills down Marik's throat but was hesitant to put it into action. It would work if he was right, and he was always right, but whether or not it would work wasn't really the issue here…

"_You…you still have a leaf in your hair."_

"_Are all your friends like that?" "They're not my friends."_

"_I didn't mean that! The part where you said I don't need a reason to come see you."_

"_Yes, you are. It's not like they can harm you, right? And if they try anything you can just…bite them."_

"_Shadi's scull is pretty thick. We should go check on it."_

That's when he made his decision and finally fully understood: _"What if you're the person whose company you don't want?"_

"I have an idea." He spoke. "Give me those." Bakura took the pills from Rishid and started to head up stairs when Isizu suddenly reached out to grab his arm.

"It will not be easy and there is always a possibility that it may not work."

The teen pulled his arm off of her hold. "I know what I'm doing." As he turned again to go up the stairs he hoped that his last statement would be true.

Bakura didn't see it but Isizu's eyes softened. "Thank you and be careful."

Hah, careful, yeah right! He didn't need to be careful, he needed to be skillful like always. This was something he wanted to do; he actually wanted help. Is this what having a friend is like? If it was, he sure didn't want more friends; it was way too bothersome and confusing. Not to mention dangerous to your health…

* * *

**A/N: **Is it just me or is the story dragging itself forward very _very_ slowly?

About school (in the fic and in real life): it will start in the fic eventually but I'm not going to write much about it. There are enough school fics already and, besides, I deal with school enough in real life, I do _not_ want it in this fic too. My school is starting soon and that will affect to my update rate :( but no worries my loyal fans! I will continue to write this even though we get tons of homework -.-' And now when at this point where I'm almost obsessed with this I just have to keep writing!


	7. Chapter 7 Just don't say the word

**A/N: **Hello everyone! Finally back with a new chapter! I'm so glad I finished this chapter at last… But you know how it is: school gets in the way of my writing and I had a minor writer's block, which caused several days of only writing like two sentences a day -.- The good thing was that I got to write this one-shot with Neji/Gaara pairing (Naruto) .

Oh and I just read the ending of the last chapter and noticed a stupid (yet kind of funny) mistake; in the last paragraph it's supposed to be: "he actually wanted **to **help" and not "he actually wanted help" xD lol Though that would also be good… Has anyone done a fic about Bakura in a mental institution? Just curious :)

linelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelineline(why isn't the god damn line working?)linelinelineline

Up the stairs and find the right door. Simple enough but that's just the easy part… There were sounds of something breaking coming from the room.

"I hope they have a home insurance…" The teen mumbled, listening the sound of something big and heavy having a meeting with the wall. He picked up the previously used knife and slipped it to his pocket, just in case. He had no intentions to hurt Marik unless necessary.

The siblings had wisely stayed down stairs but were ready to run up the stairs if they had to and help him if they could. Bakura was used to work alone so he thought that more people would just be an unnecessary hindrance. Besides they would just ruin his the whole thing.

He was apparently pretty distracted by the course of his "plan" because he had forgotten that he needed the knife to get in the room and was forced to get it out again.

"Oh great… Get a grip, Bakura." He ordered himself before using the knife to unlock the door. The teen opened the medicine bottle and put one of the capsules in his own mouth. Now he had to move fast, no room for hesitation. The pale teen stepped in the room and closed the door behind him. His entrance got the attention of the occupant, who instead of raging around seemed to take in the sight of him before licking his lips rather suggestively. Bakura smirked at him and upon feeling the pill starting to melt in his mouth he had to make his endearing yet seductive approach a bit quicker than he had originally planed.

With a few steps across the room Bakura reached Marik. He grabbed his head and crushed his mouth against the other's who let out a surprised but pleased gasp. The paler one took his change and showed his tongue inside, getting the meds inside as well. The tanned one was getting rather eager to do a bit tongue wrestling, fact that could prove to delay the other's plan since it was kind of distracting…

Bakura moved to deepen the "kiss" to get the pills further down and with his other hand moved to caress Marik's throat. It worked and caused an automatic swallowing reaction. Mission accomplished. The pill was now on it's way down the throat and would after sometime take affect. Just like planned. So why were they still, well, kissing?

Realizing that he should stop right about now Bakura started to pull away when he noticed that he didn't really have to. The other suddenly broke away, holding his head with one hand. The medicine must begin to have it's affect.

"NO! Don't-! YES! Let me-! Not now! This is my body!" Marik was arguing with…himself…over the control. This alerted Ishizu and Rishid to come and see what caused the yelling.

"Marik!" They both said with worry after seeing the boy who was now kneeling down still holding his head.

"Did you give him the medicine?" Questioned Ishizu and the albino nodded. "Good. Rishid, stay here with him. You come with me; there is something you need to know."

The two went to the living room and she sat down, indicating that the teen should too. Both seated, Ishizu spoke.

"When brother is himself again don't do or say anything… foolish."

"Define foolish."

"Listen; Marik doesn't remember the last time this happened very well or not at all and he doesn't need to know what happened then. When you speak with him, be careful with what you say. Don't mention the last time." She told sternly.

"It would help me not mention it if I knew what I shouldn't mention." He was interested to know what they were so determinate to hide from Marik, and him. The woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing.

"Maybe you will one day find out. Right now however, you have to understand that we only want to protect him."

"It must've been something really bad." The teen commented and she nodded.

"Yes. Please, he doesn't remember the things he does when he's…" Her eyes were more bleeding now and her voice cracked a bit. "He needs our support. You mustn't-."

"Fine!" The albino interfered. "I get it already! I watch what I say, satisfied?" He said maybe a bit angrier and louder than necessary. Actually he was kind of relieved to know that the other wouldn't remember how he had taken the meds. No one needed to-

"Thank you. How did you get him to take the pill, though?" Oh crap, the question of doom.

"I have my ways..." Was the casual sounding answer.

………………………………….

Like waking up from a bad dream, the young Egyptian snapped back to full consciousness and found his brother by his side. He looked relived to see him but didn't say a word, just gave him a reassuring nod before leaving. Alone in the room Marik decided to think things through. He no longer heard the voice and was in control of his body but why? What was that and why didn't anybody explain him anything? The teen noticed that his mouth tasted a bit weird, not bad, just not fully him.

The room was a total wreck; broken furniture was lying around and the wallpaper looked ripped. Sounds were heard from down stairs. He recognized his sister and brother but there was someone else too… Bakura? Now he really wanted an explanation so he stood up and a bit shakily went down stairs.

Everyone snapped their attention to the blond once he entered to the living room. Ishizu quickly came to hug her brother while Rishid just stood up.

"Thank Gods…" Over the shoulder of his happy sister Marik noted that the albino had remained sitting; he eyed the blond as if inspecting him from his seat on the couch. The blond stared right back. Ishizu took notice of this after she let go and motioned Rishid to come with her.

"We go check the damage up stairs." They left leaving the two. The tanned one glanced after them before turning his eyes back to the other's.

"Come sit." The albino said and patted the space next to him. Marik came and sat on the place where Bakura's hand had previously been, eyes never leaving him as if he could see the answers he looked for if he just looked closely enough.

"What-?" He started to ask but was interrupted by the other who reached to remove his cape.

"It looks weird on you." Bakura explained. "And as for what happened… Ask your sister, I bet she knows a lot better than I do."

"Okay, I was going to ask-." He paused as he noticed something. "Where did you get that?" The youth lifted his hand to touch the small, still a bit bleeding, wound on the other's cheek causing him to grab Marik's wrist, removing the hand.

"You threw a knife at me." The Egyptian flinched and the other corrected his statement. "The _other_ you threw a knife at me. It's no big deal."

"Sure it isn't…" The blond said skeptically. "Let's get it cleaned up anyway. I'll get the first aid kit." He stood up but was stopped by the hand still holding his wrist.

"I said it's no big deal! Sit down!" Marik was yanked back on the couch. "I get the kit." The yanker added more calmly, standing up. The Egyptian stood up as well, eyes burning with something other than rage.

"NO! It was me who did that and therefore I'm the one who should be taking care of it!" He yelled, seemingly angering the other as he bellowed right to his face.

"It wasn't YOU, you idiot! It was your other fucking psychotic personality!"

"That doesn't matter! I should've been able to do something about it!"

"Like what? What could've you done when your crappy siblings don't tell you what the hell is going on with your own body!"

"Don't you dare insult them!"

"I insult everyone I want! You had a right to know! I don't care what happened last time but they had no right to keep that from you!" They both faintly realized that this was getting a bit out of hand; the pitch of the yelling was raising and they were both definitely angry now.

"Maybe they had a good reason not to!"

"Oh come on! You don't even believe that yourself!" That was true and it must have shown in his face somehow because the albino continued. "I knew it! You're just too afraid to find out!"

"I'm not afraid!"

"Like hell you aren't! Why haven't you asked about it then? Huh! If you have some memory of it—Oh for crying out loud! What the hell is keeping you?"

They had both clenched their hands to fists and Marik's fingernails dug into his palms. "Because now I think I know what happened! I talked to him! I had this dream and I counted together one plus one! But I had no idea before this and now I wish I never did figure it out!" His eyes were shining and voice pained but still loud. The other's expression changed into a less angry one at this.

"It's that bad?" Bakura asked, not yelling anymore and the blond nodded turning his gaze to the floor. Swallowing hard he decided not to cry.

"I did something horrible…" He mumbled and sat back down. The other remained standing, not really knowing what to do.

"Marik…" He started but trailed off. The teen had little experience of comforting, except Ryou but this was different; his little brother cries, comes to him and he just _is_ there for him.

"I get the first aid kit and… you can clean the scratch if you want." The albino finally spoke quietly and the other 'hmph'ed but didn't protest.

"It's in the toilet over there." As he pointed in the right direction, the other left to get the kit.

While the albino was gone Rishid came back from down stairs. The man headed to the kitchen but was stopped by the blond.

"Rishid… You didn't tell me about before…" He lifted his head, facing his brother, eyes hurt but determinate. "I know what I did."

"Marik-."

"Don't. Just tell me how to fight it. How was I brought back?"

The man looked like he wanted to try and explain again but gave up and spoke calmly. "First time… I'm not sure what happened to him. Now the boy gave you the medicine that was given to you before."

Marik looked at the floor again, thoughtful, and Rishid took his cue to leave. Just when he walked through the kitchen door, Bakura came back form his quest for the first aid kit. The blond looked up at him, frown in his face. The other raised an eyebrow at that as he put the kit to the table and opened it, taking out the needed stuff.

"What is it?" He asked, turning to look at the blond again.

"Nothing." Marik answered, shaking his head a bit and took a piece of cotton and disinfectant.

"Right…" The skeptical teen let the other to clean his cheek The cotton was gently used to remove the blood as the Egyptian concentrated on the cheek.

"Bakura?"

"Hm?"

"How did you get the other me to take the meds?" He waited for an answer a while but when none came he turned his eyes to the other's, who was frowning in thought, gazing in space. The blond put more pressure on the wound to get his attention.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"I don't like to share your attention with empty space." Was the matter-of-fact answer to the annoyed question. "Answer my question." As he intently gazed at the other he noticed that he seemed a bit bothered by something.

"It doesn't matter." The albino said, turning his eyes away from the other's. Marik wasn't ready to give up so easily. With a fast movement he grabbed the albino's chin at the same time as he leaned closer so the other had no choice but to look him in the eye. Bakura's eyes snapped to the hand holding his chin then to the other hand still holding the piece of cotton on his cheek and finally they turned to the pair of purple eyes.

A question of "What are you doing?" came out as a quiet snarl as the albino tensed up but didn't try to get away.

"Pay attention now. The room where I… um… woke up was a terrible wreck and I know for a fact that the other me is a raving psycho. The question is: how did you manage to get _me_ take the medicine? I bet he, me, whatever didn't just let you, not without a fight, anyways." Still closely observing the other's reaction he saw how the albino was contemplating how to answer, eyes narrowing a bit.

"Why does it matter? You're back so everything is fine." Bakura spat defensively.

"Everything will not be _fine_. Nothing will ever be fine again!" The blond whispered sharply right at the other's face before letting himself collapse against his chest, taking Bakura by surprise and his eyes widened a bit.

"Not fine…" Was the sad whisper, muffled by the shirt. The hands that were previously holding the albino's face wrapped around his shoulders. With a sigh he let the blond stay there and awkwardly placed his hand on the other's back. Marik sighed too but it was more of a content one than anything else. He needed this now when the walls came tumbling down on him.

"They must hate me…" Marik mumbled quietly.

"Who?"

"Everyone. My sister and brother and…" His voice faded. That must be true…

Bakura 'hmph'ed. "Well, since you are such a smart-ass brat they would have a good reason to."

This earned a punch on the arm from the blond. "Bastard." He insulted half-heartedly. "You're terrible at making me feel better." He lifted his head from the other's chest to grand him a small grateful smile, which made the corner of Bakura's lips turn up.

"But seriously; blood is thicker than personality disorder."

Marik bit his lip and his eyes flickered off of the other's for a moment before he gazed back and asked carefully. "Is… Is friendship thicker too?"

The albino frowned slightly and stayed quiet for a moment, during which the Egyptian felt like he shouldn't have asked that now if never… The paler one finally spoke with a smirk.

"Sure it is." The tanned one's face lit up and the other's smirk fainted and his tone turned into more serious. "But don't use that word. I don't feel comfortable to be referred as 'friend'."

This piece of info caused the blond to quirk his eyebrow. "And why is that?"

The other just shrugged. "I just don't." A pause. "You can let go of me now." He informed when he noticed that Marik was still clinging to him. The clinging teen didn't hurry to let go just yet.

"You know what, my _friend_?" A glare from said friend. That only managed to make the blond smirk. "I don't feel like letting go. A _friend_ly hug is good for you."

"No it's not. Let go." He tried to push the Egyptian off, failing as he refused to let go.

"No."

"Just do it!"

"No."

"Oh for- Marik let go now!"

"You're not the boss of me, 'Kura."

"I'm glad you two are getting along." A third voice joined in and the two turned their attention to the older sister who had come down the stairs from her damage inspecting. Her eyes bounced between them as she took in the sight of her little brother holding the other boy in a tight embrace. Of course she failed to notice that they were arguing and just saw the hug and heard the nickname. Ishizu glared at Bakura, Marik saw this and let go of the other teen.

"I thank you for your help but you really should go now." She informed the albino icily. "And we need to talk to Marik. Rishid, what did they say?" The bald man had come to the room. He had called to the people who were supposed to come and fix the damage.

"We have to wait from few days to a week before they can come." Rishid told and Ishizu just looked less pleased than before. Meanwhile the two boys were having a whispered conversation.

"What's her problem?" The pale boy asked.

"Stress, I guess. So are you leaving now?"

"In a hurry to get rid of me already?"

"It's not that."

"I'm too much fun to have around. But yeah, I'll leave."

"You're such a conceited prick, you know that right?" Marik spoke with a hint of affection in his voice.

"That's why you like me so much." The conceited prick said with a smug smirk, standing up and heading out of the house without even bothering to say anything to the older siblings.

……………………………………….

After coming back home, saying a quick hello to Ryou and stopping by the kitchen to get a snack, Bakura made his way quickly back to his room. The sleepover was at full swing but he didn't really care anymore. He would have rather stayed with Marik than come back here but with his sister obviously not liking him anymore… That wasn't really an option and besides they needed sometime to sort things out. He needed sometime too; his life had just gone a whole lot more complicated.

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**A/N: **Nothing brings people together like hardship :) Sorry if the so-called kissing scene was crappy, I don't have much experience on writing them… Then again I don't have much writing experience in the first place so maybe you can forgive the crappy-ness or at least let it slide. Of course if you have some hints how to improve it or constructive criticism it would be wonderful if you would take some time and type me a review :) And even if you don't, just review anyways .


	8. Chapter 8 Healthy equals Good For You?

**A/N: **This chapter is going to take you to the past! I'm really into flashbacks now for some odd reason and I thought that this was the best way to give you a more detailed idea of what happened in Marik's past (mostly what lead to his father's death). First I thought that I would do a long dialogue (or a monologue) but decided against it. As much as I enjoy writing dialogues, a flashback felt like a better option (and as I said; I'm into them now). But if you like dialogue better, no worries; there's plenty of that too in the future. I would like to write something with lots of dialogue and maybe flashbacks… Just so I don't stuff this fic too full :) but I can't start a new ongoing fic now because of the lack of time so maybe I'll do a one-shot (again).

There is a line of bold dots like this **…………………………………..** in this chapter. It means: End of flashback, Time skip and a Scene change, all in one.

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_"Happy Birthday little brother!" Ishizu greeted as she came to get Marik from school. She and Rishid had decided that she would pick the boy up and then they would take him to eat and do other things the young Marik considered fun as a B-day present._

_Marik's features lit up at the sight of his sister and a wide smile adored his face._

"_Hey sis! I've been waiting whole day! We are going, right?" _

_Ishizu laughed a bit at his excited voice and patted the birthday boy on the head. "Of course we are." She assured. "We just have to go home first to get some stuff and Rishid."_

"_Yay! Lets go!" The boy shouted and started running down the way home, his sister soon running after him._

"_Wait up!"_

_They had to walk the way home because the buss drivers were on strike and their father was at work, he drove the only car they got. _

_The way home took through the bustling city and would have been a bit dangerous for little children to walk alone; there were all sorts of people living in the city after all. They walked hand in hand, quickly through the masses of people._

"_Where are you taking me today, sis?" Asked the boy with his apparently permanent smile on his face._

"_Well, first we are going to somewhere to eat and then" She paused and smiled back at the boy "it's up to you."_

"_We can go to anywhere I want?" He questioned excitedly._

"_Yes… But we are not leaving the country or anything like that."_

"_That's ok! I already know where I want to go!" He did have a place in mind that he wanted to go together with his family… Though his father was always busy somewhere else so he would just go with his siblings. Apparently Ishizu had seen his smile fade just a bit because she glanced at him worriedly._

"_Marik? Father can't come with us… But I'm sure he would love to if he had the time." The last part was added quickly and with some over used reassurance. "And I'm sure that you have loads of fun with Rishid and me. We don't need him, right?"_

_The blond boy gave a small nod. He still whished that his father would come… And that he would like his son, even just a bit. Is that too much to ask? It was, at least if you asked Mr. Ishtar. After his wife's death many years ago he had drowned himself with work; always working, hardly paying his children much attention, never at home and sober almost as often…As the oldest of the children, Rishid had took the position of father and mother, along with caring older brother and guardian. He grew apart of the others his age because of his responsibility to take care of the younger siblings and he had to grow up faster than most. Not related by blood but still important part of the family._

"_Hey, cheer up little brother." Ishizu said to the sad boy. "You can't be down on your birthday."_

"_Okay…" Marik said and lifted his head to crack a smile at his sister. "We're having fun today and worry later!" He declared, both gaining back most of their previous cheerfulness. It was a beautiful day after all, not a day you wish to spend worrying about anything. _

_The house was only a few blocks away. The siblings walked down the sunny street, chatting happily. They made more plans for the day and tried to decide if they should take Shadi along or not. Eventually they decided against it; if he wanted to join them he would just pop out from somewhere anyway._

_Nearing their home the two noticed that the car was parked on the driveway. That was odd because their father was supposed to be at work._

"_Look sis! It's father's car! Hey maybe he wants to wish me happy birthday!" Marik said, excitement and hopefulness in his voice, and tucked his sister's hand to make her walk faster. The sister had her doubts about that but she didn't want to bring her brother down so she just went along._

_Almost at the door Ishizu smelled smoke; something was burning that wasn't supposed to._

"_Marik stay here." She told and ran to the door, quickly going inside._

………………………………………….

Marik remembered most of that what happened that day now. As the memories flowed in his conscious mind he realized the reason he hadn't want to remember them in the first place; people tend to forget things that are traumatizing enough, it's a defense mechanism of the mind. It's supposed to protect you but now it failed him when he needed it the most. The shadow of his other self still lurked somewhere; he could feel it. Ishizu told that the medication would keep _him_ away, if that was the case the meds weren't working as good as he would have liked them to.

They did have a talk, a conversation, which should have made things clear, a conversation that should have taken place long time ago. Their will to help and protect him had back fired it seemed… He wasn't angry with them; he had been at first, though. Yelling and throwing things ensued but that was to vent out the anger and frustration, not to cause any bodily harm.

The night was starting to fall when his siblings had finally agreed to let him be…

He had been saved, what bothered him was that he hadn't been able to save himself. He had needed someone else to do it. He had been helpless… But in the same time it was good to know that there was someone you could, maybe, lean on. _Maybe_, if you needed someone like that. Marik snorted to himself; he wasn't that weak. It was not like he was going to run to his newly discovered friend whenever he faced trouble. He was not like that anymore.

But… Did Bakura have the right to know about the past? He kind of did… now that he knew this much already… Ishizu didn't really seem to like him though. It was something about suspecting the albino's motives… The blond didn't know what there was to suspect in the first place but it might just be his sister's protectiveness speaking.

…………………………………………..

_Marik didn't want to be left behind, not after he saw Rishid come and hastily greet his sister by the door before disappearing inside. He run after them and quickly slipped in the house._

_He should have listened to his sister._

_His sister and brother were standing in the doorway to the living room, looking at something with shocked expressions. In the middle of the room was_ _a fire, like a campfire. He could hear cracking sounds from the flames. Behind the fire stood a man, who the boy soon recognized as his father. His face was twisted in almost deranged expression as he watched the flames burn the objects. One of them, he noticed, seemed to be some sort of postcard; the picture of a red motorbike was almost too burned to recognize._

_A sudden shout broke the near silence. "Father! What are you doing?" It was the frightened cry of Ishizu, who was first to get her voice back. Mr. Ishtar looked at her as if just noticing that he wasn't alone in the room._

"_What does it look like you stupid girl?" He asked harshly._

"_But… But those were-." She stammered glancing between the flames and their father who just looked at her coldly._

"_Yes, that little brat doesn't deserve them. You" he pointed at Marik who had gone unnoticed by the others "don't deserve them."_

_The older sibling turned at him, surprised to see him standing there, little behind them, eyes wide and mouth slightly open from shock._

"_That's right" the man behind the fire spoke cruelly "watch your precious presents burn."_

_The blond boy gasped and his eyes filled with tears. As the question why ringed through his head, he vaguely realized that Ishizu was trying to comfort him. He thought that his father didn't hate him this much, sure he had changed when mother died but…The red motorbike card had burned to ashes when Marik's vision went black and his conscious fated._

_**"Happy Birthday…"**_

**………………………………………………………**

This was just great… A letter from Egypt, from father's colleagues, told that the albino brother's dad could not, for some reason, be moved from the country. That meant that the funeral had to be kept in Egypt, which meant that they'd have to go all the way there to participate. The man's friends and colleagues had promised to take care of the arrangements so they didn't have to worry about that.

"I'm sure that's what dad would have wanted…" Ryou said, voice sad and distant.

It was fairly early in the morning when they had realized that they got mail. It was only a few days after "the incident" with Marik. Ryou didn't have the full idea of what happened; Bakura thought that it was best if he didn't know.

"I mean" the more sad boy continued "he always liked it there…"

"Yeah… But we have to go aaalll the way over there just because they couldn't get the man's corpse over here." Not the best thing to say; Ryou looked like he had just been hit.

"Have you no respect!" He almost yelled, tears now beginning to fall. "I can't believe you would say such a thing! He was your father too, you know…"

It was rare to hear the gentle boy yell, or almost yell, and it took the older by surprise. He didn't know what to say. What could he say?

"Ryou…" Bakura started but the rest of that sentence refused to come out. The little brother waived his other hand as a sign that he didn't need to continue, while the other hand moved to rub his temples as he let out a heavy sigh.

"….It's ok… I'll just… make breakfast." And with that the boy disappeared to the kitchen.

It was often like that; Bakura had some trouble getting the little words of 'I'm sorry' out of his mouth but Ryou understood if he was sorry and was ready to forgive him.

The older considered if he should help Ryou but decided against it; it would be done much faster and safer without him.

"Breakfast!" Ryou called from the kitchen and the other was there in an instant, already hungry.

"I made porridge." The boy stated and handed a plateful to the other who made a face at it.

"I hate porridge."

Ryou just smiled faintly to his brother who started eating anyway. "But it's so healthy."

"Everything healthy tastes like sh-." The brother started with his mouth full.

"Bakura! Please don't use foul language in the table and don't speak with your mouth full." Instructed Ryou calmly. The instructed one took another spoonful. "Yes mother." He said porridge in his mouth and the other rolled his eyes.

"Pig."

"Wimp."

"Lazy slob."

"Geek."

"Idiot."

"Girl."

"Hey that was uncalled for!" Exclaimed Ryou, feign hurt. "I'm a boy, you know."

"Oh really? Haven't noticed." Older continued to tease. The teasing was cut short when he found porridge on his face.

The "girl" was grinning in a surprisingly Bakura like way. "Served you right."

He was about to avenge his face but found that he had already eaten all his food. "Damn you, Ryou!"

"Porridge is good for you!" The damned one made a beeline to his room, away from Bakura's revenging range, calling after him to do the dishes.

At first the albino considered not washing the dishes as a payback for Ryou's little trick but then he noticed that his favorite mug was among them. On the mug read: 'You can borrow this mug but then, I will have to kill you'. So he decided to do the dishes. It was actually kind of relaxing and calming… The warm water and your own wondering thoughts…

After washing his mug, Bakura vaguely wondered why was he still washing. It was probably because of the calming effect. He needed that; it was like therapy without the annoying therapist. Even if he didn't admit it, the stuff that took place just few days ago had been unnerving. His… friend… had transformed to something, no, _someone_ else. Marik said that last time he had done something terrible… Why did the other personality come back now of all times? It obviously had disappeared for a quit long time with the medication and all that. So what had trigged it to rise again?

Bakura knew that there was something they, mainly Marik, wasn't telling him. Well, more that just something; a lot of things… Like what happened last time and… Why the hell had he licked him, not to mention kissed him back? Sure he hadn't been himself but the albino's gut instinct told that the actual Marik might have an idea of why.

All the dishwashing, pondering and dwelling had led the teen into some sort of conclusion, or theory might be a better word for it.

The last time someone had most likely died. Maybe a parent, the Egyptian family seemed to lack both parents or maybe it had been some other person close to them. Why else would've Marik reacted so strongly to the memory? Also, that kind of personality disorder needed something to be developed; it wasn't like 'snap, you have two personalities'. Well, he might have been born with it but that was somehow unlikely. So something had made it develop and most likely that same something had caused it to surface.

But what had happened this time? Had someone perhaps made the Egyptian some injustice or something similar to what had been done last time? As far as Bakura knew no one had died this time. The only one the other Marik had attacked was him… He hadn't done anything, had he? No… But the so-called attack wasn't meant to kill…

Bakura lifted his hand to touch the small scar the knife had left on his cheek. He was determined to find out what was going on with his Egyptian. Whatever it was, he was pretty sure it had something to do with him. Maybe it had something to do with that motorcycle too… The image of the broken vehicle had just formed itself in his mind, along with the book he had found on the floor at the Ishtar home. What did it have to do with this anyway?

Frowning in deep thought, he dried his hands slowly and carefully, finally realizing to wipe the porridge of his face too. Done with the dishes, finally. There had been surprisingly much to wash but he had barely noticed it so wrapped up in his thoughts. Now that the dirty dishes were gone and he had some kind of idea what might be happening, he slowly returned to the reality.

Surprisingly, the first thought to pop in his mind after his return to the real life was: Had he referred to Marik as 'his Egyptian'?

Bakura felt like letting out a maniacal laugh would be a good idea, that or hitting himself. That was just stupid! What kind of thought was that anyway? No way he had-! Had he? No. He needed to take a walk. The whole thinking progress and all the weird mental images… Need to get out and clear his mind was growing stronger and he practically ran out of the small apartment.

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**A/N: **Maybe a tad bit short… But I already have a quite clear idea of what will happen in the next chapter. No promises that it will be up faster because of all the exams coming. Dare I even mention the Finnish projects I have to do? I believe I just did… Originally I was going to make this chapter more angsty than it is but I realized that I can't write that so I just had to cheer it up a bit with some lighter stuff. Let's face it; I can't write full angst. I can write serious crap, dramatic crap, fluff, some wanna-be humor and apparently deep stuff also. When it comes to angst and inner torment, I can't do much of that or it comes out as short and not so good. I think I could pull off sap if I wanted but what is it with angst?

Anyways… Push the nice purple button and **review** :)


	9. Chapter 9 Rocks in my icecream

**A/N: **New chappy for you, enjoy! I mentioned in the last chapter's a/n that I had a clear idea of what is going to happen, well… far more ended up happening than I planed and this chap. came out longer than planed, and now I just have to put some stuff I wanted in this chapter to the next one. Whenever I actually have a plan, things just don't go as planed or/and I just change my mind and end up not following it… Maybe I should just stop planning all together.

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Marik was standing outside the apartment building. He had been there about ten minutes or so, feeling nervous as hell. It had been so easy to just leave the house. In fact he had been happy to get out. Ishizu and Rishid were literally breathing on his neck almost 24/7! It was understandable that they didn't want to leave him alone; he didn't really want to be alone much either, but too much is always too much. Not to mention that they hadn't been very thrilled when Marik had off handedly told that he thought that he should tell Bakura. Especially Ishizu had something against the albino. The blond failed to see her reasons though… The guy had practically saved him. Was there something wrong with that? Sister said something about methods and motives… 

Okay. So the methods were questionable and he intended to find out about them. But motives? What motives? Did Bakura really need some sort of alternative motive and if he did what could it be?

Marik was spacing back and fort in front of the building now. Maybe he should just go back and come back another time… What if--what if he told him and… he'd lose him…?

"What are you doing here?" Asked a familiar, gruff voice as someone grabbed his shoulder from behind, making Marik jump out of his musings.

"Oh calm down! It's just me."

"Bakura! Don't sneak up on me like that! You scared the hell out of me!"

Bakura grinned sheepishly at the other's out burst.

"It's not _my_ fault that you don't pay attention to your surroundings."

Marik was about to say that it, in fact, was his fault but decided not to and just made a face in annoyance.

"So, what could possibly bring you here?" Asked the albino again and in a way that told that he already might now the answer.

"Oh! I-ah…" Marik stammered before finding his words. "Could we somewhere? To talk, I mean."

The albino shrugged "Sure. I know a place." He started walking down the street with Marik just a step behind. They walked in silence.

The silence was pressing, like it weighed them down, making their steps echo. Marik pondered how he should go with this when they reached wherever they were heading. He looked at Bakura who was slightly ahead. His hair moved in sync with his steps, bouncing with every one of them. The lose T-shirt he had on flapped a bit. Those created a strange but enticing world of visuals and sounds.

**Step** bounce _flap_, **step** _flap _bounce _flap flap_, **step** bounce _flap_. **_Bang!_**

"Ouuww…!" Now where did that lamppost come from?

Bakura halted at the sound and turned to see his companion holding his nose near a lamppost. He raised a questioning eyebrow at the other's predicament.

"Distracted much?"

Marik glared. "No! I just walked into a lamppost and almost broke my nose. Thank you for caring." He spat sarcastically, voice a bit nasal, holding his nose with both hands. "It was your fault, anyways!" He said without thinking and Bakura's eyebrow clearly wanted to fly of his face.

"And how was that my fault?" He asked before a realization was seen on his face and expression turning knowing and smug. "Or were you so busy admiring my… features… that you forgot to watch where you were going?"

The blond continued to glare, not managing to look very threatening though. "What was that supposed to mean?" His eyes widened a bit. "Ooohh. No. No, it's nothing like that."

"No?"

"No, I wasn't looking at your… er… _features_… as you put it." Now where had he got _that_ idea? It's not like-

_(( He quickly tossed the book as far away as he could with a horrified expression.))_

_"I did NOT just think that…"_

-he was… attracted to the other in anyway.

With a heavy, a bit mock disappointed, sigh Bakura grabbed Marik's hand and started to walk again. The blond gazed at the hand now holding his and blinked, twice.

"Just so you don't walk into anything. You're so _spacey_." The albino explained sounding annoyed. Marik looked up form the hands but Bakura was facing the street so he couldn't see his face.

"Mmm, okay… Where are we going by the way?" Marik hadn't been in this part of town; the buildings didn't look familiar to him as he looked around.

"You'll see." Bakura glanced at Marik who frowned uncertainly.

"I used to come here all the time. Trust me, I know where I'm going."

Trust…?

It had been so long since he last trusted someone… Still he let the albino lead him to… where ever.

……………………………………..

Finally there, by the half abandoned movie-theater. Half abandoned because movies were still showed there but almost no one ever went there. Mostly only people who lived near by or had nowhere else to go.

Bakura led Marik inside the graffiti filled building.

"This is it?" The blond asked taking a glance around.

"Yeah. Hardly no one comes here so it's quiet and nobody cares if you crash around a bit."

The place looked like someone had done more than a bit crashing around though… Some guy lay in a corner. Sunshine didn't penetrate the dirty, partly broken windows and the lights weren't working so it was very dark. The two walked through the small lobby, past the empty ticket booth, to a door. Above the door with faded silver letters read 'Kinoko 1408'. Bakura opened the door and walked in, pulling Marik after him.

"It's sort of dark in here…" The blond informed quietly, subconsciously walking closer to the other who didn't have a problem with the darkness; he could see perfectly well.

"Wait here. There's the chairs, sit down." Bakura sat the other down in a movie theater chair near the back and went off to fix them some light. He knew the place so well, having came here very often in the not so distant past, he didn't really need to see to find his way around but it was a good thing he did anyway since there was all sort of stuff on the floor.

He wasn't sure why he brought Marik here, this had been his safe hiding place for long and he didn't usually bring others here. Not that he ever had someone he wanted to take with him. The old movie-theater had been the first place to pop in his mind. Maybe Marik needed a place to hide away for a while too…

One lone light lit in the sealing, shining faint orange light. Bakura went back to the blond and flopped on a seat next to him. "Enough light for you to see talk?" The albino asked from Marik who had looked around in the room but now turned his eyes to the other.

"Strait to the chase huh?"

"What else?" The other answered with a shrug. The blond took a deep breath, reappearing himself while the other gazed at him, waiting and ready to listen.

"You know what? I can't… This was a stupid idea." Marik stood up suddenly, sounding bothered and somewhat embarrassed. "What was I thinking! It would have been better if I had just stayed home with Ishizu over caring and telling me not to trust you and-." He ranted mostly to himself, the other looking a bit baffled. "-the damage he did! My poor motorcycle was in bad shape but I really don't get why- That _thing_! I should just go back… You were dragged in this too! It would've been better if we hadn't met at all. At least you-!" His rant was stopped by a pale hand over his mouth. Marik stared at the hand dumbly before his eyes drifted down the arm, up the face and met with sharp brown ones.

"Shut up."

Sure that little rant had given Bakura some bits of info but the last part… It would_n't_ have been better for them not to meet! Without Marik his life would've just continue to be a boring drag. He hadn't thought that he would ever give a damn about anyone, except for maybe Ryou, but then this god dammed smart-ass brat had came along and turned everything upside down! And the funny thing was that things had actually changed for the better, thanks to the smart-ass brat, Marik, his Egyptian.

Bakura removed his hand from the other's mouth and placed both of his hands on the blonde's shoulders, softening his eyes and pushing the other back on the chair with surprising gentleness. Marik gazed at him with questioning eyes, waiting him to give some explanation to this sudden behavior.

The albino sat back down. "If we hadn't met that day my life would still be boring as hell so not a word about us meeting being a bad thing." He looked at Marik as if challenging him to argue. "I don't care if you have psychotic other personality…"

Marik's eyes widened before narrowing. "You don't care? Honestly?" He asked skeptically.

"Why would I?"

"Well most normal people care if someone can go psycho on them." Marik said matter-of-factly, Bakura gave a slight smirk.

"Since when have I fitted in that category?"

The blond shrugged at that, a smile tugging his lips. "You're right; you don't."

"Exactly."

The one light went out and the room was filled with darkness again. Before they had much time to react beginning credits started to play on the screen. The screen was bit ripped and dirty. The movie was an old black and white.

"They still show movies here?" Marik asked astonished.

"Sometimes." The albino acted as if it wasn't anything unexpected. "The movies are always old though… and mostly either very bloody or very sappy."

This time it came out as sappy, filled with people oh-so-in-love. On the bright side the mood was lightened by a degree again as they made remarks about the actor's skills, corny lines and over done love scenes. At one point almost everybody in the movie came to their end. It went from ever so corny love story to right out massacre. Maybe it was a different movie all together… But this was also the point when Marik started telling his story, first in short quiet whispers, gaining length and volume as he went on. Through out the story, from that faithful birthday to the present when the other personality reappeared, the other didn't take his eyes of the screen but it was clear that he was listening; slightly nodding or making a quiet noise to encourage the Egyptian to continue.

Bakura didn't see the screen or what was happening anymore so concentrated on Marik's voice, the words he spoke. He had been right about some things, even most things actually, but the emotions that came with hearing the words were a surprise to the teen. Especially compassion was weird for him…

"I actually talked to him…" Marik spoke still whispering. "He said he could do anything I wanted but couldn't because I'm too afraid to." He let out a wry laugh. "So everything bad or terrible he does, or did, is my fault because I _wanted_ it." Tan teen snickered in self-irony again. "Funny how I never really remember wishing my father dead."

Now when Bakura turned to look at the other, his expression not giving away anything, he could see the pain Marik was hiding behind his all most deranged snickers. The normally sharp and merciless red-ish brown eyes softened into a more chocolate shade.

"Come on, Marik. Lets get out of here."

"Where to?"

A teasing smirk adored his face. "It's a surprise."

………………………………….

After some walking the two arrived to a café. It looked like every other small café and Marik considered it a bit weird that this was the place they came to. He had somehow expected something… different.

"Bakura?" He spoke to the other who was sitting opposite to him.

"What?"

"Why did we come here?"

The albino answered with an 'I know everything and you know nothing' –expression, slightly annoying needless to say. "Because I'm hungry and we can get food for free here." Marik gave him a questioning look and he continued to explain. "See that waitress over there? Just flirt with her a bit and you don't have to pay."

The blond looked at the direction the other was indicating. "I see…" He said lamely.

"Yeah. Discovered it when Ryou first dragged me here. All he needed to do was smile and be his over polite self, I just followed his lead and needn't to pay for a thing."

Marik frowned. Did this girl like Bakura or was she like that with all the others too? She wasn't even very pretty, maybe a bit slut-y. Now that he thought of it, he hadn't really deemed any girls pretty, or attractive, in… some time.

"Something wrong?" Bakura asked the other with a raised eyebrow; Marik was almost glaring at the waitress now.

"No, nothing!" He quickly snapped his attention back to the pale teen.

"Good." It was clearly something but the albino let it slide, he could question further later. "She's coming, put your nice and charming face on."

"Fine, fine. Wait… _You_ have a nice and charming face?" The blond asked, obviously not believing, but before the other could answer the waitress was already there.

Well, apparently, Bakura indeed had his own nice and charming act. Through out the process of ordering he was all charming smirk and smooth talk. Marik could easily tell that he was clearly faking it but the waitress was completely oblivious as she giggled at something he said and promised that everything he or 'his cute friend' ordered was on her. The blond didn't really need to do much, just sit there, act nice and look 'cute'. Inside he felt like vomiting; he was _not_ cute and just… eeww. He didn't like this girl.

Finally she left. The two glanced at each other after she was out of sight. Marik pretended to stuck his fingers in his throat and made a gag sound, Bakura laughed at this in agreement. They got what they ordered quickly and with sickening sweetness.

"You're such a terrible actor. Anyone with brains could tell that you weren't sincere." The Egyptian commented arrogantly.

"Oh? You think you could've done better, little cute Marik?" Asked the other teasingly, earning a glare.

"Tch, of course. And don't call me little or cute, you sorry excuse of an actor."

Bakura just chuckled at the insult. "What should I call you then?"

"Hmmm… From now on you shall address me as Your Great Awesome-ness!" Marik declared with a dramatic hand gesture, which served to knock down the small vase that was on the table.

"I believe _Your Great Awesome-ness_ just made a mess."

"Oh shut up 'Kura."

He wiped most of the water away with a napkin and put the flowers back in the vase, placing it aside. They started eating and drinking. When the albino said that he was hungry he had obviously meant it…

"You eat like a pig."

"Hmph, Ryou keeps telling me that too." He said with half the sandwich in his mouth, the blond made a face.

"I'm trying to eat here!"

"Tell me when you stop _trying_; I'm already done."

"Excuse me for having table manners."

Marik continued to eat after doing some necessary-at-this-moment eye rolling. The food was rather good, along with coffee. The other was watching him the whole time, waiting for him to get done. The intense gaze was making him a bit uncomfortable though…

"Are my eating habits really that interesting?"

The other smirked. "Highly interesting… You done?"

"Yep." Last sip of coffee. "We're going somewhere?"

Bakura nodded and they both rose and exited the café. Again the blond found himself following the other down the streets, wondering where they were going. Every time he asked all he got was another 'You'll see'. It was annoying to certain extent but it was kind of nice too; to spend time like this and being treated like a person even after he spilled his darkest secret to Bakura. Actually… He had told the other all that and he couldn't help feeling that while he had been so open, the other was still very closed up. Then again, what had he expected?

……………………………………..

"What can I say? I like looking down on people."

The rooftop wasn't all that high; the buildings surrounding it hid most of the city from view and there was, once again, no apparent point in going up there. Without further ado they flopped to sit on the roof, near the edge. The roof was built in a way that if you sat on the right spot near the edge, you couldn't be seen from the street below. This served a purpose in what they were planning to do; throw rocks at innocent by passers. So maybe this was not the sort of thing that mature people did for fun and 'Wanna throw rocks at people?' seemed like a stupid suggestion but screw manure and smart behavior; they were having fun. Fun was needed, especially now.

"Watch this." The albino aimed, threw his pebble and hit a bird that was flying by. The bird dropt unconscious and hit a person who was walking on the sidewalk. The person let out a strangled cry, not expecting raining birds.

"Nice one" Commented Marik while still laughing. "Hey, bet I can hit that kids ice-cream."

"You're on. If you miss you have to… tell your cousin that you secretly love him and worship him as your god for a week."

The blond made a disgusted face but excepted anyway; he just aimed more carefully because the stakes were so high. The small rock whirled through the air and sank right into the ice-cream, knocking it out of the kids hands in the progress. The blond turned to Bakura with a triumphal grin on his face.

Bakura frowned. "You didn't tell me what I'd have to do if I lost."

The grin didn't go anywhere and the albino had a feeling that this didn't bode well. "Oh you just have to tell me a little something, don't worry." The grinning teen chirped, certainly not decreasing the other's uneasiness.

"What do you want to know?" There were only few options in Bakura's mind what it might be and he didn't like any of them.

"You see, my sister suspects that you used some questionable method to… help me with my other personality." The Egyptian started casually, confirming the other's speculations. "And I-."

"It's none of your sister's busyness." Interrupted Bakura.

"But it is _my_ busyness! I won't tell her if you don't want me to but I need to know."

"Why?"

"I'm trying to gather up my life here." He looked the other deeply in the eye, honest. "I was afraid to tell you… about past, I thought you might hate me…"

The albino turned his eyes away towards the street, unable to look at the other. "I um…" Despise his distaste towards cowardice he realized that he was the worst of them all. So afraid of… What? He wasn't even sure what it was, exactly, that he afraid of. Truly pathetic.

"I kind of… gave… the meds to you orally." There! Wonderful; he didn't even stammer or mumble much.

Bakura glanced carefully at the blond who looked puzzled, frowning slightly. The albino sighed, annoyed by the other's stupidity. He acted on impulse, as he often did when he was annoyed or angry enough, and leaned closer.

"Like this…" Bakura closed the short distance between them and pressed his lips against the blonde's. Taken back, Marik's eyes widened a bit before becoming half lidded as he leaned in, partly out of instinct. Bakura just slightly moved his mouth to against the other's before pulling away. They both turned back to stare at the street below.

"Oh…" Was all Marik had to say, as if just now realizing the albino's 'secret method'.

"…Yeah…" That could've gone worse; the blond could've just beat the crap out of him, or tried to anyway. They just sat there in silence, watching as people hurried by on the street below. The situation could be more awkward; surprisingly it didn't really bother them so much. Then again they weren't at ease either; in that case they would have just joked it off by saying something completely stupid…

"_That_, I won't be telling to Ishizu." Marik broke the silence suddenly. Bakura gave him a sideways glance and noticed that he was looking at him with a smirk.

"Hmph, you'd better not. I'm on her hate list as it is." He felt a slight tugging in the corners of his own mouth as the other laughed.

"I know! Not to mention that she's breathing on my back enough already."

The pale teen gave in to the tugging and let his lips curl up. He turned to face the scenery in front of him with his companion. These were the places he used to come alone when he needed a break from his life. Never had he shared their whereabouts or his frustrated anger or sadness with anyone.

If you can't put something into words, show it.

* * *

**A/N: **I hate the ending so much! Ugh. I just didn't know how to end it but felt like I needed to before I shoved everything into one chapter. I'm such a terrible authoress… Thank you for everyone who keeps reading this crap :) and a huge thanks for those who review, it means alot to me. 


	10. Chapter 10 The Worst and The Best

**A/N:** YAY! I survived! I live, whoooo! …Ahem… I was very down (borderline between just feeling down and being right out depressed was fading) after I finished chapter nine (I also had five exams in a row…) and my motivation to write fled somewhere but now I've found it again. My motivation and my… How should I put it…? Will to live? Okay, maybe that's over exaggerating… I had a fight with this person who I value and have known for… 8 years or so. I thought she was being an idiot and said some pretty nasty stuff to her… I apologized already but now we're apparently not in speaking terms… Enough of that and on with The Boredom! I present to you: Chapter Ten, enjoy :)

Oh and when this fic actually ends, I'll make it so that you know without a doubt. I'll put a nice big 'The End' in the end or something so no more misunderstandings can happen. Though it got a few people to review the story :) Thank you to you who reviewed, you really made my day; now I know that there's people out there who actually _want_ me to continue writing this little piece of fanfiction (it upgraded from piece of crap into a piece of fanfiction) and wouldn't be happy if I just suddenly ended it.

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Marik really didn't feel like going home after spending the day with Bakura, knowing that interrogation waited him there. Besides, they had had a great time! Eating for free and pissing people off by throwing small rocks at them, walking around Domino and arguing about stupid stuff, sometimes just to purposefully annoy the other. They were currently sitting on a park bench, in the park. Yes, it was The Park, it must have a name, something like Domino Park but that didn't matter because now it held some strange importance. The two were arguing if the park should be named Bakura's and Marik's Park or Marik's and Bakura's Park. The older woman who was feeding the birds looked at the teens strangely and slowly began to grow her distance to them.

"My name should be first because B comes before M in the alphabets."

"So? My name is far cooler than your is and I didn't know you knew the alphabets!"

"Argh! I'm not that stupid! And your name is so not cooler than mine!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"It is times one billion!"

"It is not times one billion and one!"

By this time the bird lady had distanced herself quite far away and was just about to turn and run as fast as she could, away from the loonies. She however was stopped when "the two loonies" addressed her with their problem.

"Hey, old hag! Which name is cooler; Bakura or Marik?"

"I'm not going to answer that you rude lunatics!" Shouted the woman and stormed away, birds following her. The paler rude lunatic grossed his arms in annoyance and the other gave an annoyed huff.

"Hmhp, and she called us rude."

"Yeah!"

The two looked at each other for a moment before bursting into fits of laughter. If there were still people in that part of the park, they were driven away now. As they had agreed in a previous rather pointless chat on their way to the park: they brought out the worst and the best in each other. The worst was only mentioned first because Bakura won that argument for some odd reason.

Wiping away the tear of laughter from the corner of his eye, Marik straitened up from his slightly bent laughing position and turned to his companion again. His red-brown eyes were shining with mirth, which, Marik had noted, was rare but he had detected traces of it more often and often during that day. It reminded him of the photograph he had seen when he first visited Bakura's apartment… Ryou had said that the photo was the only prove there is that Bakura could smile. Well that was no longer the case; Marik had seen him smile more than once. Most of the smiles could just be noticed from the eyes, face otherwise not giving away much emotion, but the smile was there. Without the Egyptian noticing, a soft expression had taken over his face.

"You look so nice when you smile…" He whispered softly, the words not really registering in his mind yet and kind of just slipping out. A look of confusion flashed past the albino's face before changing into his arrogant trademark smirk.

"And I smile only for you, my dear." He mock bowed as deep as it was possible seeing that he was currently sitting. Now Marik's mind realized what he had just said and how the other had responded. The first reaction was to hit the back of the albino's still bowed head. The second was to silently thank whatever gods up there for not letting the other see the embarrassed pink hue on his face. He just let something like that slip and was called 'my dear'. By Bakura!

"So violent…" Chuckled the albino, getting up from his bow and holding the back of his head.

"You're the one to talk." Huffed Marik, making a point of not looking at the other who just continued to smirk.

"No need to be pissed at me. Sorry I mocked your compliment. It was so sweet of you."

The blond glared at him. "Don't make me kick your sorry ass."

"You look so adorable when you're embarrassed."

That caught the Egyptian off guard and made him forget that he was supposed to be angry, not more embarrassed. "I-I'm not adorable!" He exclaimed, looking away again. Then the realization hit him; this was exactly how the other wanted him to react and the mischievous expression Bakura had confirmed that.

"You are so dead!" He bounced but the albino was faster and managed to slip from him. "Bakuraaah! Come back here!"

………………………………………

It was already dark out when the two teens reached the Ishtar's doorstep. The chase through the park had been… interesting. After running around, chasing and yelling like madmen, freaking out the rest of the people in the park area, someone had apparently called the police after them. Okay, so it was only two policemen and one mental institution worker who were chasing after them. They had decided to put their current differences aside and join forces to get away from the chasers and had succeed to lose them eventually.

As the adrenalin began to wear off, the two realized how tired they really were. Because Marik's home was closer and practically on Bakura's way home, the albino had decided to walk his friend home before heading to his own. They were almost falling asleep on each other. The only thing keeping them awake was the brilliant idea of taking turns in pinching the other's arm.

"Are you sure" yawn "that you're not gonna fall asleep on your way home?" Asked Marik as he tried to find his keys.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure…" Convinced Bakura not managing to sound very convincing though.

"Damn keys…" Mumbled the blond just before he felt something heavy on his shoulder and heard steady breathing. "Bakura? You still… awake?"

The words he spoke were lost to the albino who was now fast asleep against his shoulder. He had just found the keys and was about to use them to open the door when someone beat him to it. The blond stared at the spot where the lock had been just few seconds ago before lifting his eyes to his tired and annoyed older sister.

"Have you no idea what time it is?" She asked.

Now that he thought of it, Marik didn't know what time it was. They had been running away and hiding for god knows how long so it was probably pretty late seeing that it was dark. "Um… No."

Bakura made his presence known by mumbling something about garden gnomes and circling his arms around the Egyptian's waist to support himself, nuzzling his head on the other's neck and shoulder. Ishizu's eyes narrowed dangerously at the action. Marik was uncertain what to do but decided that it was the best to stop them both from falling and leaned back against the other, adopting a nervous look as his sister's eyes hardened.

"You have been with him the whole day?"

"Yeah… And now, as you see, we're really tired so if you could just let us in-."

"Fine." She interrupted him tiredly. "But he's sleeping on the couch and we are having a little chat in the morning." With that she stepped aside letting the two in, Bakura had to be half dragged by Marik in to the living room. Ishizu went back to sleep upstairs after a few suspicious glances.

Marik somehow managed to get the sleeping teen on the couch. The only problem was that he refused to let go so now the blond was bent over him in a weird position.

"Okay, time to let go of Marik." He tried to get the other's arms off his waist but it didn't help much. He sighed heavily. "Oh come on! I want to go to sleep." He honestly couldn't have guessed that Bakura was so heavy sleeper…

"Marik?" Ishizu called from upstairs. "Are you in bed already?"

"Uh… Yes!" He answered and hissed to Bakura "Let go" without the desired effect. Marik let out an annoyed groan. "Fine! I'm sleeping here, now make room." He pushed Bakura aside a bit so that he could fit on the couch without completely laying on top of the other teen. After finding a comfortable position, his head on the other's shoulder, it didn't take long for him to fall asleep. It was so nice and… warm…

Feeling the other's breathing even out as a sign that he had fallen asleep, Bakura cracked one eye open and glanced at the blond, smirk on his lips.

"Sweet dreams…" He closed his eye again and drifted off to a peaceful sleep.

……………………………………………

The vibration of his cell phone woke Bakura up the next morning. It was very early and Marik was still sleeping, half using him as his pillow/ mattress, other arm laying carelessly cross his chest. He glanced at the caller ID and quietly answered. "What?"

"Bakura? Where are you? You just left yesterday and didn't come back all night." Ryou spoke worriedly from the other end.

"I was with Marik all day. I'm at his place."

Ryou was quiet for a while. "… You are at his place? You were there the whole night?"

"Most of the night anyway." He frowned a bit. "Why?"

"No reason." The little brother chirped happily. "So did you guys have fun? You didn't get into any trouble, did you?"

"Yeah, I guess we had pretty great time and no, we didn't get into very serious trouble…"

"Not very serious…?" Ryou sighed. "I should have known you two wouldn't be able to stay out of trouble… I'm glad it's nothing too serious."

Bakura felt Marik stir a bit and checked that he hadn't woken the other up. The blond was still sleeping but he made a small noise and stirred some more. "Listen Ryou. We have to continue this chat some other time."

"Ok! We'll talk when you get home. Why are you whispering though?"

"I don't want to wake Marik up."

If it would be possible to hear someone raise an eyebrow, Bakura would have heard the sound. "I see… When you get back you'll have to tell me _everything_. See you later, bye!" They both hung up, the older wondering why Ryou sounded so happy… A thought hit him, making him chuckle. Now Ryou probably thought that they had slept together or something. Well, they had but not in that sense.

"Morning…" Spoke Marik tiredly, placing his chin on the other's chest and looking at him with sleepy eyes.

"Good morning. Slept well?" Asked Bakura with a slight smile and teasing glint in his eyes.

"Why of course. You're such a nice pillow, 'Kura." Answered the Egyptian, smirk taking over his tired face. "Why are you awake already?" He paused to yawn. "It's so early…"

"Ryou called; he wanted to know where I was." Bakura also gave a large yawn and noticed that a strange look flashed past Marik's eyes. "Hmm?" He questioned with a raised brow.

"You have pretty sharp lookin' canine…" The blond mumbled, eyes becoming half lidded and he let out a small yawn again.

"Okay…" Bakura started to absentmindedly fiddle with the other's hair, feeling sleep taking over once again.

Marik closed his eyes and sighed contently. "Mmmh… I'm going back to sleep…"

The albino gazed at his half sleeping companion and moved from fiddling with the hair to draw circles on the back of his shirt. He felt nice and warm… Bakura hadn't slept so peacefully in ages but he also knew that he'd have to leave soon or else he would have Ishizu's wrath on him and a longer interrogation from Ryou. He didn't really want to leave; he didn't want to wake up Marik. He looked so peaceful and content, making little sleeping noises and burying his face in his chest. Yeah, Bakura really hated the fact that he had to go.

"Marik?" He whispered. "Marik, wake up."

The blond moved a bit and almost managed to open his eyes. "Nnnmh… What?"

"I have to get going."

"What…?" He blinked. "Why?"

"Mainly because of certain someone's older sister."

Now the blond snapped awake and rose to a sitting position. "You're right. If she finds out that I never made it to my room… She will lecture me without end and hunt you down to lecture to you too and then she'll strangle you with her necklace."

Bakura looked rather skeptical about the last part. "I think you're over exaggerating a bit." He sat up too only to find himself almost nose to nose with Marik who was, apparently, sitting near his waist. "I also think that you're cutting the blood circulation in my legs…"

"And I think you should go…" The Egyptian whispered back, breath tickling the other's face but neither made a move. There was a new tension in the room and the temperature felt rising up. They slowly inched towards each other when they heard sound from upstairs, causing them to back off and Marik to jump off of Bakura. Someone was awake up there and Marik let out a nervous cough.

"Um… I'll just get going now…" The albino said awkwardly and started to head towards the door. Just before stepping out of the door he turned around to flash Marik a grin.

"Good luck with your sister."

"Thanks, I'll need it. Bye."

"Bye."

Bakura walked out of the yard and started his way down the street. That had been… so close… He felt something warm swelling inside his chest but he also felt confusion; in what, exactly, had he gotten himself into now?

The relationship he had developed to Marik was strictly, if reluctantly at first, deemed as friendship. The teen had never had any friends before but he was pretty sure that friends weren't supposed to feel… attraction… towards each other. And yet, that was what it had been. Their… uh… development from just friends to maybe something more had been so slow that they must have missed it… And now it decided to jump out and punch him in the face! Bang. It was there and he was forced to acknowledge it.

"This is stupid… We are friends. Nothing more…" The thing was that no one or nothing could force him to do anything. "…and certainly nothing less."

A voice from seemingly nowhere broke his musings. "Have you some reason to doubt that?"

Without the albino noticing or paying much attention, he had already arrived home and the voice from nowhere was actually Ryou's. Bakura looked at his younger brother who was looking curiously right back.

"No…"

"Sure you don't. Why would you try to convince yourself that you two are just friends if there was no reason to doubt that in the first place?" Ryou questioned wisely with a trace of Bakura's know-it-all kind of arrogance. "Something happened between you and Marik, right?"

"What goes on between us is none of your damn busyness." Bakura spat suddenly making Ryou finch and a hurt look took over his features as his brother marched in to the kitchen to get something to eat. He followed him, not wanting his brother to just push him out again.

"Bakura?" He started carefully. The older had opened the fridge, looking for something. "Did something happen?" It was easier to just ask yes or no questions until the other was ready to open up more, if that ever happened at all…

"Yes…"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

Ryou sighed. "Was it something that made you question the nature of your relationship with Marik?"

"Yes…"

"Did you two…?"

"What? No!" Bakura turned away from the fridge to Ryou who giggled at his reaction a bit. "We didn't really _do_ anything…"

"But you felt something that you don't think you should have felt if you really were just friends?"

Bakura didn't answer but the little brother already knew the answer from his reaction. "So what was that 'I don't want wake Marik up' all about then?"

"Oh that…" Bakura looked a bit sheepish. "We kind of ended up sleeping on their couch."

Ryou grinned. "Aww, that's so cute! Was he cuddly?" He asked and his brother glared but answered anyway.

"Yes, very. Now let me eat before I starve."

"All right-y! Oh and Bakura? No need to be afraid or anything, I'm sure everything will work out." Ryou said with assuring voice before leaving his brother to eat and think in peace. Bakura was about to tell him that he wasn't afraid but the truth was that he was, kind of… He hoped that his little brother would be right…

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**A/N:** I enjoyed writing this chapter, it was fun and I finished it much much sooner than I thought I would so a fast update for you :) I don't know about the next chapter but I'll start working on it soon. 

Don't forget to **review.** They help to keep me going. (And she keeps going and going and going. Nothing can stop her xD)


	11. Chapter 11 Assume nothing

**A/N:** Sorry if it's been long since the last update but I've been plagued by these ideas for an Angstshipping fic (hikari Marik/Ryou). It's kind of hard to write Thiefshipping when you keep seeing all these Angstship scenes in your head… So I started writing an angstshipping fic :D yay? Also I had some problems with one part of this chapter. Not major problems or not minor ones just middle sized.

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Since yesterday, Ryou had not left his brother alone. Questions and knowing looks were sent towards certain white haired youth who in turn sent annoyed glares and snappy answers. If he didn't answer at all, Ryou would just make his own conclusions and that was never a good thing since the boy's imagination was so over active. Despise all Bakura's newly found hostility towards his brother; Ryou knew that it was only because he had found a soft spot. It must peeve the teen without end that he actually has one and that his little brother could drive him in a metaphorical corner because of it. Then again, a cornered animal, a person in this case, can be dangerous so Ryou refrained from calling any of his friends over.

The teen was just "enjoying" his time in the living room, entertaining himself by throwing a ball at the near wall and catching it after it bounced back just to throw it again. This had went on somewhere between fifteen minutes to a half an hour and the neighbors were quickly going insane because of the 'thump' sound the ball created when it contacted with the wall. At least five had already come knocking at their door, telling him to cut it out. Some were bounding the walls with heavy objects or just screaming from behind them to make it stop and one had actually dropped a piece of burning paper through their mail-box, telling them to burn in hell. Luckily they already happened to own a fire-extinguisher so not much harm done.

Someone was at the door again and Ryou called Bakura to get it, he was somewhat busy and didn't want anyone to yell at his face again about disturbing the peace and what-not. Reluctant to leave his new hobby, the teen rose from his spot and went to get the door, his expression, which was somewhere between pissed, bored and thoughtful not leaving his face.

After opening the door and realizing who it was he just wanted to shut the door again and continue spending quality time with his new round friend.

"What do you want and how do you know where I live?" He asked rather flatly from Ishizu who was standing behind his doorstep. She, however, was not faced by his blunt rudeness and answered with as much politeness as she could master though failing to hide the coldness in her voice.

"I wish to speak with you, Shadi gave me your address. May I come in?"

"I don't 'wish to speak with you' so no. Goodbye." He tried to close the door on her face but she caught it with her hand before it closed.

"Let me in, this is important."

Bakura stopped trying to close the door and pretended to think. "Hmm… No. Tell Marik I said hi." He tried to push the door closed again while she tried to push it open, telling that he really should let her in. This caught the attention of Ryou and he walked in just to see the strange pushing contest between the Egyptian woman and his brother.

"Uh… What's going on?" He questioned quietly and they both turned their attention to him.

Ishizu was first to address him. "Hello, you must be Ryou. I'm Marik's older sister Ishtar Ishizu. May I please come in?" She spoke with a polite smile from the door crack and Ryou's face instantly lit up and he answered with equal politeness, much to his brother's dismay.

"Of course! Do come in Ms. Ishtar. I'm so sorry for my brother's behavior, I don't know what's gotten into him lately." And then with quieter voice with less politeness. "Bakura let her in. _Please_." The older teen did so with a grunt. "What brings you here, Ms. Ishtar?" Questioned Ryou after she got in.

"Actually, I need to speak with your brother here." She shot a meaningful glare at Bakura who just pretended not to notice.

Ryou didn't miss the glare. "I see…" He had this knowing look in his eyes as he glanced at his brother. "I'll just leave you two to chat then." He said cheerfully and left, despise the don't-you-dare-leave-me-alone –look from Bakura.

"You have such a nice little brother." She complimented, both still standing near the door, but the teen didn't feel like listening any of this polite crap.

"This is about Marik." He stated, grossing his arms and leaning against the wall, not intending to invite her farther in the apartment. "What? Did you come here to tell me to leave him alone or something?"

Her eyes hardened again. "As much as I'd like to do so, no, that is not why I'm here. I would like you to fill me in on what is going on with you two."

He frowned at that. "Why don't you ask Marik?"

"I tried to already but he's not telling me as much as I'd like to know. Not to mention he's been acting weird even for him."

"Not as much as you'd like to know?" Bakura snorted mockingly. "And here I thought that trust and all that crap was a part of being a family."

"What would you know about that!" She snapped. "What would you know about trust and being a family? You are just a teenage brat who thinks that world evolves around you and that you can just march into someone's life and mess it up!"

Now Bakura straitened up and took a few steps towards the fuming Ishizu, with an expression that would make a lesser person back off as fast as they could. "Don't _ever_ make that kind of assumptions." He growled. "You don't know shit about me or what kind of person I am. Do you honestly think that I wanted to come to anyone's life? No! All I ever wanted was the world to leave me the hell alone, mind it's own busyness and let me mind mine. If anyone has marched into someone's life and messed it up, it's your little innocent brother who has marched into mine by some cruel twist of fate!" Hissed Bakura with a deadly, angry whisper. That's what he first thought and what he still thinks; he and Marik were only thrown together because the fate hated him, it always had. Fate's plan had just gone terribly wrong at some point, making his life a lot better instead of a lot worse and more messed up. Okay, so it was more messed up but in a good way if that's even possible.

They both stood there in silence for a good while, Bakura had nothing more to say and Ishizu just wasn't sure what to say.

After awhile she couched to get his attention and spoke with a clam, quiet voice. "Listen, Bakura; I didn't come here to fight with you or to insult you and I apologize."

"Hmph, sure you didn't. What did you come here for then?" He gave a sideways glance since he had previously turned away pointedly.

"I just want to clear a few things up." She looked around in the small hall they were standing. "Could we not stand here?" She asked a bit annoyed that she hadn't been decently invited in. The boy reluctantly led her to the living room and they both sat down, making sure to sit in their own corners. They both recognized a peace offering when they saw one; Ishizu had apologized and Bakura had let her in farther than the hall, and silently agreed to try and act at least civilized about this.

"So what has Marik told you, what do you want to know and how is he been acting weird?" Started Bakura with questions, just so that they could get this over with and he wished he wouldn't have to talk much.

"Yes well… I spoke with him yesterday about your little adventure the other day… and night… But I think that he leaves some major gaps and just snaps at me if I try to further question him."

"So what if he doesn't want to tell you everything? It's not like we… robbed a bank or murdered someone."

"That's just it. If you hadn't done anything illegal or anything along the same lines, he would just tell me how you spent all that time."

"Look here," He started tiredly. "We didn't do anything like that. Okay, we did get chased by a couple of cops and a guy from the loony house but that was only because someone thought we were disturbing the peace or something by running around the park and yelling."

Ishizu's brows furrowed a bit. "Why were you running and yelling in the first place?"

"Because Marik was pissed at me and wanted me dead." He told matter-of-factly. "But he got over it when we had to run away from authority."

She stared at him blankly for a moment. "I… see…" she managed to utter before regaining her composure. "That's all?"

Bakura shrugged and tried to look casual. "What did you expect?"

"Actually… How should I put it…?" She thought about her wording a bit. "How would you describe your relationship with my brother?" She asked finally and the teen felt like chocking on air. Was she asking what he thought she was asking? Ryou had been pestering him about "the nature of their relationship", as he put it, as well! Siblings were now officially a pain in his backside.

"We're _friends_." He stressed the word a little more than he really needed to. "Why do you ask?"

"Close friends?" She pressed on. "How physically close are you?"

Physically close? Once again Bakura wondered if she was really asking what he thought she was and just snapped. First his own mind was pestering him about 'their physical closeness', then Ryou and now this woman. "If you want to know if we're fucking around behind your back just ask for Gods' sake and stop beating around the bush!" He right out yelled, standing up. Ishizu's eyes widened and she just blinked at the teen who was breathing heavily after his out-burst.

"Are you?" She asked carefully.

"NO! It is _not_ like that!" Bakura cried out.

"Then please calm down. I'm not accusing you about anything." Ishizu spoke calmingly. "I just wanted to know if you two were… together."

"And what's made you think that we are?" He asked, calming down a bit but refusing to sit back down. Now wherever had she got that idea from?

"Well, the way I've seen you act around each other for starters and the way he's been lately. You see; he actually dumped all his old friends, just like that. Not that I liked them…"

"They weren't really his friends in the first place." Bakura stated.

She gave him a 'how-did-you-know' – look. "Yes… And he's been in his own little world since… yesterday. Sometimes just staring in space and then suddenly frowning or grinning with no apparent reason."

He slightly lifted his eyebrow. He had been doing that too when he's been trying to sort out his thoughts and feelings and that's what he was doing while throwing the ball too. So Marik was going through the same thing? Bakura smirked a bit, forgetting that he wasn't alone in the room.

"Yes, just like that." Ishizu said, snapping the teen out of his thoughts.

Ryou obviously decided that this was good time as any to come join them. "I'm not interrupting you, am I?" He questioned with a small, polite smile and Ishizu assured him that he wasn't. Then he went through his standard questioning if the guest, Ishizu in this case, wanted something to eat or drink. She convinced that she was just fine without and that she was just about to leave anyway.

"Before you leave, Ms. Ishtar, can I have a word with you?"

"Of course."

"Um, Bakura could you-."

"Fine, I leave you alone." He stalked out of the room to let his little brother and the Egyptian woman talk privately, wondering what could Ryou possibly want to talk to her about. It probably had something to do with him, no doubt.

……………………………………….

Marik was just outside of the house. He finally had time for himself because Ishizu had gone to god knows where and there was no one in the house besides him since Rishid was at the restaurant, helping out Shadi. The Egyptian teen was currently trying to fix his motorbike, which had been broken since he accidentally smashed the tire. It was the first time in ages, it felt, that he had the chance to spend some quality time with his precious bike. So much had happened of late and it was a relief that nothing hectic, for once, was happening. Of course that didn't mean that nothing was going on, no, no. Something seemed to always be going on these days. It was a nice change, that's for sure but also confusing. Or the _source_ of things was. By that he was, of course, referring to who else but his companion, Bakura. Somehow 'friend' didn't seem the right word. Maybe it was because Bakura had asked him not to refer to him like that and friendship didn't count as much in his books. Marik's previous friends had after all been, well, just not very important to him.

Marik frowned to himself when he realized that he was thinking of the other teen. _Again_. What else had he been doing lately except thinking and analyzing the situation? Okay, let's see… Eating, spacing, sleeping, staring into empty space, spacing around some more… Yeah, that's about it.

He didn't really want to think anymore; it was no use and only served to make everything seem more complicated, so he had decided to stop dwelling and just let things evolve for a while, just see how they worked out and go with the flow.

Luckily he had his trusty motorbike to take his mind off of things. Marik had no idea how had his precious got into this shape. This wasn't a neighborhood where people went and wrecked some else's property nor did he remember it being in this bad shape before; it was only a broken tire.

When he tried to reach for the screwdriver, he accidentally knocked down the garden gnome. He glared at it and it just grinned rather maniac-ly back. The Egyptian picked it up to see it a bit better. He'd never really paid much attention to it before. He had no idea where had they got it in the first place. Who would want a homicidal looking gnome in their yard anyway? Marik placed it back on the grass and glared at it some more, not so surprisingly it only smiled back.

Suddenly his glare turned into a soft, amused smile. The gnome actually reminded him of Bakura. The though made him laugh as he wondered how would Bakura react if he told him that he was like that gnome, or the gnome was like him. He felt pretty affectionate towards the gnome now and let it watch him fix his motorbike, with that stupid, insane smile on it's face.

……………………………………………..

It was apparent now that the discussion indeed was about Bakura. He should never let Ryou speak to any more-than-a-bit-hostile-towards-him-Egyptian-women. Something was clearly up when said woman knocked on his room's door and let herself in. What had they talked about exactly? He had no idea but Ishizu offered him a smile and alarms went off in his head.

"What did he say to you?" He asked but she just smiled a bit more.

"Your brother told me that you are looking for a job. There is a spot open in the Domino museum I work in, I could recommend you." She offered and Bakura tried to decide between raising his brow, frowning suspiciously and dying from pure shock. She offered to recommend him for a job? In the place she worked in?

When Bakura failed to comment or do much else, she continued. "You would be running some errands for the other museum workers and such but I think it pays rather well."

The teen had decided not to die from shock and just tried to raise his brow and frown at the same time instead.

"Hey, don't look like that now, I'm giving you a one time offer to prove me wrong and to prove your brother right about you."

Now what had Ryou said exactly? Sure he probably meant well and all…

"I leave you my number, think about it and call me when you reach decision." She handed him a slip of paper with numbers on it and he looked at it suspiciously. Turning the slip around, like searching for something, maybe a bomb, he noticed the other numbers written on the back. He looked at Ishizu for an explanation.

"That's my brother's cell phone number, call him before he exhausts himself by spacing around." After that she just left. Bakura could hear her saying goodbye to Ryou before going out the door.

A laud yell of "Ryou!" was heard after Bakura got over his first shock. The little brother soon peered into the room.

"Yes?"

The older stopped staring at the slip of paper stupidly and turned to his brother. "What the hell did you say to her?" He asked, not really sounding pissed, just shocked.

Ryou smiled at him mysteriously. "Oh nothing much. Did you take the job?"

Nothing much? Nothing much! "No! I'm thinking about it…"

"Okay, I think you should accept. It would be good if you got to know each other better. She's not a bad person, you know."

"Ryou, you don't think _anyone_ is a bad person." He felt like pointing out; he didn't want to learn to know this Ishizu woman nor did he want to get along with her.

"Yeah well, how else would I be able to live with you?" Ryou counter pointed out. He did have a point there… "Besides, it would make things easier with Marik if his sister didn't hate you." And once again, a good point. Ryou dismissed himself, knowing that he had made his point, which he had of course.

Sighing and flopping on his bed in utter defeat, Bakura couldn't help but feel annoyingly grateful that there was someone who could be rational when he couldn't. Ryou always wanted the best for him and for him to be happy, even over his own happiness. He knew that while his brother was acting more cheerful now, he really was feeling quite miserable. Their father's death had of course been a huge blow for him and when he drove for his brother to have someone special in his life, Ryou had no one it seemed. Sure he had tons of friends but he didn't have a love, as far as Bakura was concerned anyway and he doubted that Ryou would keep something like that from him. Bakura felt a bang of guilt; it wasn't fair for him to be happy when Ryou was so unhappy. The younger boy had far more right for happiness than he did.

Bakura sighed again, feeling quite bad. He lifted the hand, where the phone numbers still were, absently. His eyes rifted to Marik's number in the back. Maybe he should talk to someone about this all and work things out.

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**A/N:** Weekend! Yeah! Finally… I hoped you weren't too bored :) There's most likely more action in the next chapter. Well not action action but action xD But you know this was important for the future events and all. 

Tell me what you think, please! In other words; review :)


	12. Chapter 12 Gnomes and coffee

**A/N:** Chapter 12! I was just reading back to find out how long time has passed since the beginning and I counted little less than two weeks. As I was trying to make things advance slowly between the pair, I actually made them become pretty close in a very short notice. Two weeks, or less than that, is such a short time that I don't know if it's realistic for them to be close already. I don't know… maybe I'm just thinking too much but it bothers me a bit. There's not much I can do about it without doing some serious rewriting and I really don't want to go down that road. So, I'll just leave it be… Hope you enjoy this chapter!

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Marik was still trying to figure out what had caused his motorbike to go in such a shape and how to fix it when he heard his cell ring. He got it out of his pocket and noticed that he didn't recognize the caller. It better not be one of those phone salesmen, there is almost nothing more annoying and persistent than those people. He answered anyway out of sick curiosity.

"I'm not buying anything so don't even try." He heard a light chuckle from the other end.

"Good for you but wouldn't a simple 'hello' be better?"

Marik recognized that voice. His face lit up automatically before he could even fully realize why; it was the person who had caused so much spacing and confusing thought progress, after all, but for some reason he was glad to hear his voice. "Bakura? How did you get my number?"

"You wouldn't believe if I told you…"

"Try me."

"From your lovely sister who paid me a visit earlier."

His eyes widened; he had no idea that Ishizu was planning to go give Bakura a visit. "_She_ gave you my number? And she was there?"

"Yes to both questions. Oh and did I mention that after speaking with Ryou she offered me a job at the museum?"

Marik really tried not to choke, let his eyes pop out or yell. "Whaaat! You can't be serious!" He managed not to choke or let his eyes pop out.

"Yeah, I wouldn't believe me if I was you either. This must be the first sing of apocalypse." Bakura said fake seriously.

"So what did she want?" The blond asked curiously.

"She… was a bit worried about the nature of our relationship."

Marik raised a brow. "The nature of our relationship?" He actually had a hunch about his sister's worries. Hell, he could have sworn that she was about to give him 'the talk' at any moment now.

"Yeah… You know, she basically wanted to know if we're some kind of fuck buddies."

He felt like choking again at Bakura's interesting choice of words. "Uh…" Cough. "I figured she-." He stopped in mid-sentence. Damn Bakura and his _interesting_ choice of words. Now he had an equally interesting mental image pop-up from nowhere. Last time that happened it had caused him to assault one of his sister's books but that was a long time ago, or maybe not that long time. Before the re-emerging of his other personality, which really wasn't that long ago but so much had happened since then that it felt that more time had passed than actually had.

"Hey, are you still there?" The man of many interesting choices of words asked from the other end causing him to snap out of it.

"Yeah, I'm here. I just… um… So… what are you doing?" That was a pathetic change of subject and Marik knew from the pause before the answer that the other noticed that too.

"Nothing." He said sounding suspicious over the sudden change of subject. "Why you ask?"

"No reason… Did you have a reason to call or…?" The Egyptian let the question hang in the air, waiting for an answer.

"Well, actually…" Bakura sounded a bit awkward all of a sudden. "If… If, say, someone you care about was feeling bad, what would you do to make this person feel better?"

Well, that was a question Marik hadn't expected. He had kind of assumed, or hoped, that this would be about yesterday. He really wanted to clear things up to know where they stood with each other. So that wasn't exactly counted as going with the flow but it would certainly make things easier. Was it possible for them to go beyond friendship? If it was, did they want to? To add in the confusion facture; he wasn't even sure which way the other swung, not to mention he, until this point, had considered himself straight.

Back to the other's question earlier. Marik was pretty sure he knew who was this person Bakura was talking about. How many persons were there that he cared about? Only three as far as Marik was concerned. His little brother Ryou, himself and maybe… Marik. "You're talking about Ryou, aren't you?"

"Yes… How did you know?"

"Oh come on, it's not like there's awful lot of people you give a damn about." That was so obvious it was stupid. "Do something to cheer him up."

"Thank you, I would have never been able to come up with that myself." Bakura's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "What do you suggest I do, oh wise one?"

The blond couldn't help the slight grin that wanted to appear but he managed to make his answer sound serious and knowing. "Whatever you do it has to be something he will enjoy and make sure it's something that you're doing just for him."

There was a pause after that when Bakura seemed to think it over. When he didn't say anything for awhile, Marik decided to take matters into his own hands. "Bakura? Why don't you come over, I can help you to arrange something for Ryou and you can help me with my motorbike."

"Sure, better over there than here doing nothing… What's wrong with your bike?"

"I wish I knew… I have no idea what happened to it either. May have to take it to a professional."

They said their byes and hung up soon after. Marik went back to his bike, wondering how he could lead the conversation to a desired direction. To be quite honest, he had little idea how he should go with this… He just hoped this wouldn't turn out to be a disaster or jeopardize their friendship. But if you thought of it, it was unlikely; if a homicidal other personality or hostile Ishizu could only bring them closer, how big of a change did something like this have braking them apart?

……………………………………………..

Slim to none. At least that was what Bakura was telling to himself as he was making his way towards Marik's. The Ryou and the Egyptians motorbike had been just excuses to give him a reason come over, no doubt. It was good that he hadn't had to think up the excuses, it was conveniently done for him. Though he did want to talk about Ryou somewhat but that wasn't the main reason he had agreed to go, or call in the first place.

Coming closer to the house he could see the blond sitting on the lawn, facing away from him. He smirked a bit and thought that he could sneak up on the other and scare the crap out of him. The teen was just a few more steps away from the other's back when Marik suddenly turned around, bounced on his feet and JUMPED.

Before he even had the time to fully understand what just happened Bakura found himself back against the grass, breathing heavily, heart bounding in his chest. Focusing his eyes in his attacker, he found whom else but Marik grinning victoriously while sitting on him, pinning him down by the shoulders. Damn, his plan to scare the other had completely backfired and turned upside down.

"Why hello there 'Kura." Said the blond still grinning. "You weren't trying to scare me now were you?"

"How did you-?" There was no way Marik could have heard him coming and this unfortunate turn of events had damaged his ego a little. He was supposed to be the attacker, not the attacked one.

"I just paid a bit more attention to my surroundings." He answered while looking smug as ever. Bakura snorted and crossed his arms in annoyance, starring at the other as if trying to get him get off by just the power of his thought and hard stare. This had no affect on the Egyptian however who just stared right back, a smirk-ish smile dancing on his face. After awhile of stubborn staring from both parts Marik's eyes lit up like he had just thought of something sadistically funny and Bakura had a bad feeling.

"What's the matter? Don't like being on the bottom?" Marik asked teasingly, his expression now impish. The last tactic, if it could be called that, of acting annoyed had not worked but two could play this game.

Bakura put his smirk on. "I'm just used of being on top of things."

An angry shout snapped them out of their own little world. They had completely forgotten that they were in a public place.

"Get a room you faggots!" Yelled a couple of narrow-minded elderly people who lived down the street. The two glanced at them with raised eyebrows then at each other. Upon realizing that their position really was rather suggesting Marik gave a sideways glance to the old people, who had stopped and were whispering something to each other, then he looked back at Bakura and mouthed, "Play along." The teen gave him a questioning look.

The Egyptian leaned close, so close that their faces were just millimeters apart and moaned loud enough for "the audience" to hear. Now Bakura also caught up and placed his hand on the other's waist who leaned to his touch. He arched his body to meet Marik's, letting out a pleased sound for good measure. For someone who didn't know better it looked like they were in the middle of a heated make-out session; that's exactly what it looked like to the old people on the street who gasped in horror as they dumbly watched the show the two put on.

Silent agreements passed between them through heir locked gazes as they moved in sync, so very close but never really touching. Breath tickled their faces as they uttered their much exaggerated moans and gasps, all part of the show, making them smile along with the horrified sounds from the audience. They actually had to fight the urge to giggle like schoolgirls. The elderly people finally decided to leave and they did it very fast too, now probably traumatized for life.

Once they were gone Marik had to press his head on Bakura's shoulder to muffle his laughter. The other teen laughed too. They both may have assumed that the laughter was because of the reaction they got out from those people but actually it was more like that kind of laughter people laugh when the tension brakes, like when you get off from roller coaster and realize that you're still alive after all the spinning around. They stayed like that for a while, feeling rather nice and secure, much like the other night.

Bakura moved his leg to a better position, kicking something down while doing it.

"Crap. What was that?" He tried to see but seeing how Marik was on top of him it proved quite difficult. The other teen turned to look what he was talking about.

"Oh no! Gnome down." He removed himself from Bakura who now too was able to get up and see that the freaky looking yard gnome had been kicked down. The blond picked it up to see if any harm was done. "You should be more careful, you could've broken him."

"That would've served it right." He really didn't get why it would be such a terrible lost if the gnome would brake. Apparently it was a big deal to Marik who cleaned the blasted thing from grass and placed it back in standing position, looking at it affectionately. Bakura glared at the thing. He was partly covered in grass too but Marik wasn't even helping him up and holy hell; he was jealous at the gnome!

"Why is it such a big deal to you anyway?" The white haired teen asked grumpily, indicating at the gnome. The other looked at him grinningly.

"I just love the little thing. He's so much like you."

Bakura just stared at his companion stupidly for a while, not quite progressing what he had said. Marik _loved_ the gnome? The gnome was like _him_…? No way… The teen looked away, suddenly finding the grass very interesting.

"It's nothing like me…" He mumbled and glanced at Marik, who looked puzzled, before concentrating on the grass again.

After a moment of awkward silence Bakura heard the other to stand up and soon after he found a hand in front of him. He looked up the arm to find that Marik was indeed offering to help him up with a small smile. He took the hand pulled himself up.

"Come, I'll… make us some coffee." And without letting go of Bakura's hand, Marik took him inside and in the kitchen. The Egyptian started the coffee and sat on the kitchen counter and the other followed his lead. They sat in silence; the sound of the coffeemaker was the only thing that broke the silence.

Once the coffee was done Marik poured it in two cups, hading the other to Bakura who took it but just looked at it, not drinking.

"What are we?" He asked the question that was hanging between them, just not spoken aloud until now. Marik took a sip of his coffee before answering quietly.

"A couple of stupid and emotionally handicapped people, apparently." They both laughed and took a sip of their coffees. That settled it at least for now. Neither of them knowing any better yet but willing to find out by any means. It was one of those silent agreements that could be made only if the people who were part of it were close enough.

"You know," Marik spoke again "you should take the job at the museum."

The other nodded. "Maybe I should…"

"And what about lil Ryou?"

"I'll think of something." He drank from his cup again and made a face. "This coffee tastes like shit."

"Sugar?"

"Thanks."

* * *

**A/N:** Ok… I really have nothing to say about this chapter xD Except "emotionally handicapped" might be my own term for certain type of people but you all understand what it means, right? And sorry it was so short and took long to update, again -.-'' 

Leave me a **review** before you hit the back button, please :)


	13. Chapter 13 Stop pestering us

**A/N:** I had some "plot issues" but I've solved them now. I have pretty much the rest of the fic figured out. Yes, I actually have a plan, be very afraid xD

I'd like to thank DesertQueen for reviewing me so many times (this is the only way since you're anonymous): Thank you so much :) :) :)

I also have a question: would you mind Ryou/Yuugi as a slight side pairing? If there's no protest against this, I'll write it. (In other words if no one threats to hunt me down and kill me or something, I will do it xD)

* * *

Bakura had really tried to think of something for his little brother but failing to come up with anything so he resolved to just asking Ryou what he wanted. The younger boy had been surprised at first but recovered soon enough, now thinking of options he would like to do with his brother. It had been awhile since the brothers had last spent quality time together and Ryou was glad they had a change to do so and that he got to decide what they would do. He had an idea…

"Oh I know!" Ryou exclaimed happily. "You can come with us to the arcade."

"Who's 'us'?" Asked Bakura suspiciously.

"My friends and I, of course. Let's invite Marik too. That'll be so much fun!"

The teen wasn't too happy with Ryou's decision but didn't protest. After all this was for him, for Ryou to have fun. And besides Marik would be there so maybe Bakura could stand spending time with his little brother's friends, just this once. He didn't know why exactly Ryou wanted the Egyptian to be there too but he did have a fleeting suspicion…

After Ryou gave his friends a heads up that Bakura was joining them with his friend and got him to invite Marik with a text message, they were off to the arcade. The arcade in question was a bit out side Domino city center and was relatively large and popular. Bakura hardly ever went there because of all the annoying people but the place was pretty familiar to Ryou who spent time there with his friends. They met up at the entrance, Marik was yet to come, and went inside, everyone else except Ryou keeping their distance to Bakura who tried not to act too hostile, not succeeding very well though.

They sat on one of the small tables near the windows and snack automats, Ryou and Bakura on the other side and the rest four on the other. While the rest chatted cheerily, though a bit cautious in Bakura's presence, the fore mentioned glanced around from under his brow. He was surprised when someone suddenly addressed him.

"Not to sound rude but… I was a bit shocked to hear that you too invited a friend to join us. So um… what is he like?" It was the midget boy, what-was-his-name… Yuugi? It must have been his friendly, I-believe-in-second-chances attitude that possessed him to actually talk to the teen. The teen mentally repeated his new mantra in his head when he answered, trying not to sound too rude. Must try to be nice for Ryou's sake, must try to be nice for Ryou's sake…

"Hmph. It's not like I'm completely incapable to socialize, I just choose not to. And I'm sure that once he gets here you're able to find out what he's like your self." Ryou kicked him under the table and he gave him a quick glare. In his opinion that went rather well, it's not like he had completely bitten Yuugi's head off. It's their problem when they didn't try to speak with him after that.

It was in the middle of a conversation about some new movie when Bakura spotted the familiar blond and called him over. "Hey, Marik!" Everyone's attention turned to the Egyptian who came to their table and greeted everyone. "What took you so long?" Bakura asked voice irritated but actually glad that the other had showed up.

"Nice to see you too, 'Kura." Bit Marik, he too not as irritated as he let on. "I had a bit trouble finding here. It's hard to find a place you've never been at with the directions that went a long the lines of 'Come to the arcade and save me from the idiot squad'. Well, your savior has arrived." Marik smirked when the other glared at him and "the idiot squad" stared at him; they had just witnessed someone back and out talk Bakura and live to tell the tale.

"Don't worry, this is their pretty usual form of communication." Ryou assured his friends once he saw their disbelieving faces. "Let me translate: first my brother says that he's happy to see Marik, then Marik says that he's happy to see Bakura and that he was very glad to be invited here." He explained with a smile, earning some strange and amused looks.

Ryou made room for Marik so that he could be seated next to Bakura and to everyone's, except Ryou's, surprise was able to start a conversation with ease.

"So these are the notorious Ryou's friends. They don't seem all that bad."

"That's it, they're not. They're just so nice it makes me want to puke."

Marik chuckled slightly. "And you live with Ryou."

"That has nothing to do with this."

"We can hear you, you know." Half muttered the blond idiot who's name Bakura had no interest in knowing.

"Yes, I know."

"Uh, why don't we go play the games?" Ryou hurried to suggest, not wanting to let Bakura and his friends become too pissed with each other. The friendship gang was more than happy to get away from the situation and they went with Ryou. The older brother wasn't too interested in going with them so he stayed there with Marik.

Together they soon proceeded to watch people who played or walked on the street behind the window and talk about how their lives must suck. It was fun to think up reasons why someone played some particular game or why did that one guy have a walking stick. Most of the reasons they thought up were pretty surreal and would probably never happen in real life but still. They didn't really feel like taking things too seriously now anyway.

After sometime the others came back to have something to drink and Ryou brought sodas for them too, from the vending machine.

…………………………………

Everything went relatively well until a subject of which American superhero was the best was somehow brought up. The blond boy, apparently called Jounouchi, was trying to convince that Anzu girl that Spiderman indeed was better than Cat-woman and that Cat-woman was, in fact a villain, not a superhero. At some point Marik noticed that Bakura had started to mumble something under his breath. It sounded like he was repeating some sort of mantra that was something like 'Must try to be nice for Ryou's sake' and that the volume of the mumbling was increasing until he finally just stood up and yelled.

"To hell with it! You two shut UP! Just go screw your stupid heroes, I don't care just shut the fuck up!" He stood there fuming but that had successfully shut everyone up. Marik noticed the pleading look Ryou gave him and decided that it was up to him to take action.

"Come on, Bakura, let's go blast some zombies." Marik said with a sigh and grabbed the teen's hand, half dragging him away from the gang to the zombie shooting game. They didn't talk much while shooting the undead on the screen with plastic guns and Bakura got he chance to vent out his anger, not just on the zombies but on the gaming machine as well. Where Marik looked it seemed best to stop before any serious damage could be done.

"Calm down or you're going to brake it." He said, placing his hand on the other's arm who did set down his fake gun but was still reluctant to let his anger go. "You know, if you keep acting like this you're only going to ruin it for Ryou."

"I'm trying, ok?" Bakura snapped. "I was trying to be nice. It's their fault if they are so damn annoying."

The blond chuckled a bit. "If that was you trying to be nice, I'd hate to see you trying to be mean."

"So would everyone else, believe me." He was still trying to be annoyed but bit by bit failing to do so as Marik placed his hands on his shoulders, giving him a friendly shake and smiling at him.

"Just hang in there, alright? The next time when you feel like ripping someone's head of, do as I do in those situations."

"What would that be?" The angry annoyance finally slipped away and he returned the smile.

"Just picture yourself strangling the person. I do that when I have to deal with Shadi, it works. Or mentally setting them on fire works just as well."

Bakura raised his hand to tuck some of Marik's hair behind his ear. "Maybe you should start an advise column." The affection behind that simple move was like a silent message of 'Thank you for existing' and Marik returned it with a squeeze on the other's shoulder as 'My pleasure'.

They were starting to get back to the others and soon noticed that only Ryou and Yuugi were left at the table, others gone somewhere to play. They were having a quiet conversation, during which they occasionally glanced at the other two. It looked suspiciously like they were talking about them.

"It's not nice to talk about people behind their backs." Stated Bakura as they reached the table and sat down so that Bakura sat next to his brother and Marik next to Yuugi, opposite to Bakura. The two younger boys looked at them innocently.

"Oh we weren't talking about you. Actually we were just discussing if we should be heading home since the others are getting hungry." Said Ryou, looking so innocent that he didn't look innocent at all. His older brother frowned at him clearly not buying it.

"Sure you were… But maybe we should go home."

Ryou nodded. "Would you like to come with us, Marik?"

The blond was a bit unsure if he should go or not. Sure he wanted to but Ryou's overwhelming innocence was kind of scary. "Yeah… Sure." He ended up answering anyway and the boy seemed very pleased.

"Good! And after we have eaten we can play relationship therapy." The two looked alarmed now.

"What?!"

"Maybe I shouldn't come after all…" Marik was about to subtly get away from them when he heard Ryou's voice and turned to look at him. Now he wished that he hadn't.

"But you promised already."

"You promised to Ryou." Yuugi joined his friend and together they made their Double Puppy Dog Eyes of Impending Doom, which they had practiced in front of a mirror and honed to a point that no one could deny them.

"W-well, I did promise but…" Marik stammered but soon realized that he couldn't escape the mighty power of Double Puppy Dog Eyes of Impending Doom and with a sigh agreed to go but he wouldn't go alone. Bakura had started sneaking off but Marik grabbed his shoulder and stopped him from escaping.

"If I'm going down, you are going with me." He hissed to the other teen. Ryou changed pleased looks with his partner in crime before he went to find the rest of the gang.

"I swear that my brother is the evil incarnate." Mumbled Bakura to Marik as they were exiting the arcade and Marik just had to agree.

……………………………….

The three arrived to the apartment and ate. Ryou tried to make conversation with the other two but they weren't in a chatty mood, they were more in a mood to worry and threat what this "relationship therapy" in held. They did agree to try and find out about this whatever kind of relationship they had but really wanted to do it by their own terms. This would probably mean that it would take about a couple hundred years to do though… If this was only going to help them, what was the problem? They should have jumped from joy, not getting ready to jump out of the window to escape. Maybe it was that they would possibly find out that scared them. The two had no idea what kind of relationship knowledge Ryou held but he was much more in touch with his emotions than they were.

After they all finished eating, Ryou shooed them to the living room, telling that he would soon join them. The two sat down, nervous and contemplating whether or not they should just run out of the door while they still could. Escaping wouldn't prove to be very useful in the long run though so they just took a deep breath and stayed put. They couldn't just sit there quietly, however. Only sound braking the silence was Ryou's humming coming from the kitchen and Marik had a question that had been bothering him for a while now.

"Bakura?… Has your brother done this before?" He somehow had the aching feeling that this wasn't the first time Ryou had offered to be some sort of matchmaker for his older brother.

"Sadly, yes. He has a history as my personal matchmaker. Why?" Bakura turned to the other, wanting to know why he brought that up.

Marik shrugged as if it was no big deal. "No reason. So who else has he tried to set up with you?"

Bakura had to wonder Marik's choice of words. Who _else_? It wasn't like Marik was just some random person Ryou tried to pair him up with. "I don't even want to remember… But once he tried to pair me up with the annoying bitch from the idiot squad." He shuddered. "And there was that one guy from school…" Bakura made a face. "I swear he was trying to feel me up so I broke his arm." The teen finished with a shrug. "There were more but I really don't want to talk about them."

The blond laughed, actually sounding more relieved than amused. "Bad memories huh?"

"Right out terrible. I have no idea why Ryou thought any of those people would make a good match."

"You don't like people much, do you?"

"I don't like living things in general but yeah, I hate most people." People deceived, cheated and left you to rot if it would benefit them, only caring about them selves. "You and Ryou are really the only people I can stand. Hey maybe he's finally learning from his past matchmaking mishaps since he's putting so much effort in us; you actually have potential." Bakura even amazed himself when he was able to say that so casually, smirk firmly on his face. The reaction it he got was surprising as well. Instead of acting annoyed or smug about the comment, Marik's eyes widened as he stared at Bakura who could have sworn that was a blush on his face.

"Hm? Something I said?" Bakura inquired and Marik turned away, finding something interesting from the wall.

"Nothing. I just- Never mind."

The humming from the kitchen started to come closer and soon Ryou entered the room. For a moment his eyes bounced between the two, trying to figure out what was going on. He had taken a chair with him from the kitchen so that he could sit opposite the two who had taken over the couch. When he carried his seat the room and placed it on the floor, the other occupants seemed to notice his presence.

"I hope you weren't too bored while I was away."

"Our torturer has arrived…" Remarked Bakura, making Ryou scold at him.

"I'm supposed to be a therapist, not a torturer."

"Same difference."

The game of relationship therapy went something like this; Ryou would play the therapist/counselor person and help Bakura and Marik with their problems. According to his diagnosis they were a good example of two people in denial or just confused about emotional things. He was out to help them to sort things out and if help didn't work he would sort out their feelings for them. You see; Ryou had talked about his brother and his supposed "only just a friend" with his friends. Even his friend Jounouchi, who was not exactly the brightest person, had noticed the difference between Bakura with Marik and Bakura without Marik so it had to be obvious. The only problem was how to get the two people in question to co-operate. It wasn't an easy task but he got them to answer some questions that had been left open and well, some that Ryou was just curious to know. Like how did they end up sharing a couch the other night, what did they do that day and how big was the couch again? And then there was the question of why Ishizu didn't like Bakura? That was a bit difficult to explain because the two soon realized that Ryou didn't know about Marik's other personality. Bakura wasn't sure if Marik wanted Ryou to know so he said nothing about that and Marik preferred not to mention it so Ryou only got a moderated version about the whole thing. He did however have a comment about their day out.

"Aw, that sounds almost like a date."

"Uh… well… It wasn't…"

Ryou sighed. "You are impossible… Look, see this?" He pulled out a banana from somewhere. "What color is it?"

"Where did you get that?" Asked Bakura.

"Where was he keeping it?" Asked Marik from Bakura raising his eyebrow and the other chuckled.

"Oh be serious!" Huffed Ryou. "Answer my question."

"It's yellow, so?"

"Ok, good. Now if you were colorblind, what color would it be then?" He pressed on, determined to make his point.

"Still yellow. And your point would be?"

"Exactly. Even if you can't see the color it doesn't mean it's not there. If you don't see something it doesn't make it disappear."

"Yeah but if I was colorblind the banana wouldn't be yellow to me." Said Bakura crossing his arms, stubbornly refusing to see Ryou's point.

"Yes but in reality the color would still be the same whether you saw it or not."

"You do realize that you're having almost philosophical conversation about the color of some fruit, right?" Marik cut in.

"I'm using the fruit as a metaphor." Explained Ryou, his long fuse was starting to burn out. The two were even more stubborn and blind than he had expected.

"I know that but it's a strange one to use in this situation. Banana is usually used to-."

"Yes I know!" Ryou interrupted before Marik had time to finish his sentence.

……………………………….

It wasn't long after the banana discussion that they actually managed to make Ryou run out of patience. They would have never thought that it was possible but apparently, it was. Even the normally nice and polite boy could snap and yell. Maybe he just spent too much time with his brother…

"Argh! How can you be like this? You can't just go through your life ignoring all feelings towards others!"

"I'm not ignoring _all_ feelings." Informed Bakura, Marik was just surprised to see the boy like this. This must be a big deal to Ryou…

"Yes, only the positive ones."

"Hate _is_ a positive feeling, it gives you strength."

"It's negative strength!"

"No it's not! Strength is always positive!"

Ryou wasn't the only one who was out of patience…

"Is not! Besides the strength you get from positive feelings like love is much greater."

"Give me a break, Ryou! Don't lecture me about _love_!" Bakura spat.

"Would you two just calm down!" Marik yelled over the voices of the two brothers before things got more serious. It seemed that they didn't quite share the same visions about things and would be ready to try to prove the other wrong, even if it took forever and Marik really didn't have that kind of time.

Ryou sat back down, he had stood up earlier with Bakura, and took a deep breath, rubbing his temples.

"Bakura, please." The blond reached to tuck him by the hand and he actually sat down with a huff.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that." Said Ryou smiling awkwardly at the Egyptian.

"That's ok." It's natural to have a fight between siblings, Marik should know; he had two siblings after all. Besides, that wasn't the worst one he had seen. It was just a bit surprising that it was Ryou who was the first to raise his voice. Now the boy was studying him with a thoughtful expression and Marik had to wonder what was going through his mind. A quick glance at Bakura confirmed that he was still angrily glaring at nothing in particular, arms crossed on his chest.

"Marik? Could you calm him down?" Ryou asked suddenly and quietly.

"Sure…" But why it had to be him? It's not like Ryou couldn't calm his brother down if he wanted.

The Egyptian moved to sit a bit closer and placed his hand on the other's shoulder gently.

"What?" Bakura was still a bit snap-ish but at least his glare wasn't so hard as he looked at the one who was asked to calm him.

"Hey it's not me you're angry with, remember?" Marik smiled at the other's frown and began to draw small circles on the shoulder with his thump. Bakura sighed and let his hands fall on his lap. He ran his other hand through his hair.

"I know…"

"Tch, now your hair is even messier. You look like some kind of troll." The blond laughed a bit and tried to pet the hair back down but it just bounced right back up the way it was. "And your hair is just as stubborn as you."

"Hey, don't touch the do." Said Bakura, now only faking to be annoyed.

"Aawww, you guys are so cute." Half squealed Ryou. To be quite honest they had already forgotten that he was in the same room.

"I'm not cute!" They both said at the same time and Ryou smiled even wider.

"Oh yes you are. And I'm glad to inform you that my theory was right."

They changed glances. "What theory?"

"It's the contact that matters, you see." He grinned rather mysteriously and just a bit impishly. He looked surprisingly much like his brother, actually. "Have you two kissed, by the way?" He asked as if casually and out of nowhere but that was not a 'by the way' question by any means. Earlier when they had told Ryou about that day, they had conveniently left out the part where they kissed at the roof. And of course they didn't mention about the time when Bakura gave Marik his medication, though maybe that doesn't count as a kiss between them since it was Marik's other personality in control of Marik's body at the time.

"What?"

"Excuse me?" They both spoke the same time again and it sounded like they asked "Whexcusteme?" or something the like.

"It's all in his kiss, you know. I think you should, it might just help you to discover the true colors of your relationship."

Bakura had a strange expression. "Have you been listening to Cher again?"

"No… But that's true."

"You expect us to just- This is almost a public place!"

"No it's not, it's only me here." Ryou smiled innocently. "Besides, if you're so sure there's nothing else than friendship between you, what's there to be afraid of?"

"We are not afraid!" Stated Marik and Bakura nodded, they weren't looking at each other though.

"Yes you are." Said Ryou in a sing-song voice.

"No we're not!"

"Then prove it."

Silence filled the room and the two stared at Ryou in some sort of weird two versus one staring contest. No idea how Ryou was able to stare at them both at the same time but he just was; he was just good that way.

"You want to find out, don't you?" Ryou whispered and grinned knowingly. He had a good reason too since he was pretty much right.

"Will you stop pestering us then?" Bakura asked after a moment of silence and Marik turned to look at him but his eyes were firmly at Ryou who put his other hand on his heart and raised the other.

"Promise. I will no longer bother you about this."

"You will not even mention it and this will stay between us."

Ryou sighed but promised anyway. Marik's eyes sifted from Bakura to Ryou and back again. Apparently no one cared what he thought but that was probably good because he really wasn't sure what he thought exactly. Bakura finally turned to Marik and placed a finger under his chin. The Egyptian felt like laughing at his serious expression but found that he couldn't when the other leaned close. Instead he closed his eyes and felt Bakura's lashes brush his cheek as he did too. When the warm lips met his, Marik's heart skipped a beat before starting to beat rabidly. He leaned to response but just then it was over already as the other pulled away.

"There, happy now?"

The question was directed at Ryou who had a grin on his face. Marik just stared at Bakura and blinked. That was it? Marik felt like saying that no, he was not happy. That wasn't even a proper kiss! It was like just a small peck. He absentmindedly darted his tongue out to wet his lips and detected a small, faint trace of the other. The taste was the same as that time when he had woken up after regaining the control of his body, except that time it had been stronger. The Egyptian was suddenly angry and a black wave of jealousy washed over him. The others didn't notice the change in his demeanor as they bickered about something or other.

Marik rose to his feat. "I think I should go home." He stated, turned on his heals and rushed to the door. Bakura ran after him, catching him before he was out he door. He grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Marik, what's wrong?" The teen asked slightly worried.

"Nothing. See you later, _'Kura_." Marik spat icily and jerked his arm off the other's grasp. He exited the apartment, closing the door rather violently behind him, leaving the other standing there dumfounded, the door almost on his face.

……………………………

"_Heh heh, looks like I've got something you don't my other."_

_Shut up._

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**A/N:** I actually updated much faster than I expected and the chapter is a page longer than my average chapter. Looks like thirteen is your lucky number, dear reader :) But aw poor Marik, jealous of himself xD I realized that I actually bash most characters in this, heh, I hope no one gets offended by it. It's not my intention to bash some particular character just because I don't happen to like him/her or offend anyone. Oh and while I still remember; does anyone have a good nickname for Marik? I mean, in the fic, Marik has nickname for Bakura and Bakura needs a nickname for Marik too but I have trouble coming up with one. If any of you could help me, that would be nice and I will of course give you credit :) 

I always appreciate reviews, you know ;)


	14. Chapter 14 Peace offering

**A/N:** Since I actually have this all planned now… The fic is going to end after four or five more chapters. There, I said it but even after that you haven't seen the last of me for I have ideas! Muhahahahaaa! -.-'' ahem… Don't mind me, I'm not fully sane but then again, who is?

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"Bakura? Why aren't you in bed?" 

The addressed teen sat on the couch, empty eyes glued to the TV screen, which showed a document about some sort of wildlife. He didn't react on the question in any way so his brother sat sighing besides him on the couch.

"You should try to get some sleep."

"I'm not tired." He answered gruffly.

"Of course you aren't. You just _happen_ to have bags under your eyes and act like a zombie all the time." It was really incredible how much sarcasm Ryou could muster if he needed it. "What are you trying to achieve? You have work tomorrow."

Tomorrow was Monday, the first of work at the museum. Bakura had thought it over and called to Ishizu that he would accept the job. Ishizu had recommended him to the head of the museum and pulled some strings so he had gotten the job.

"Get off my case and go to sleep already." Bakura meant to snap but it came out as a tired, slightly angry mumble. It had been a few days since the day they went to the arcade and since…

Ryou sighed again and placed his hand on his brother's shoulder comfortingly. "I'm sure that if you just went to see him and-."

"I said leave it be!" Bakura snapped and slapped the hand away. "I don't need your advise so get the hell off my case!"

Ryou looked hurt and bent his head down. "I just wanted to help… I'm-I'm going to get some sleep. Don't stay up too late, ok?" After a last worried glance the boy left to go to his own room.

Bakura groaned and collapsed on the couch. He was so frustrated, with him self, with the situation, with the TV but most of all with a certain other person.

He hadn't slept in a few days at all, he just couldn't so he just stayed up all night and watched TV. Sleep deprived equals a one grumpy, snappy, piss-y teen. He had been in a very foul mood for the past days and since he hadn't left the apartment the only person he could take it out on was the last person he wanted to take it out to; Ryou. He had been all but nice to his little brother, barking and snapping at him, raising his voice for no good reason and just telling him to leave him be. The younger being the understanding and forgiving person he was had taken it all calmly while trying to console his brother, which just made Bakura more angry. He was mostly angry with himself for not knowing what to do and for taking it out on Ryou who had done nothing wrong. The TV didn't help either because it failed to show anything of interest in the long hours of night. He just wanted to take his trustworthy baseball bat on smash the god-dammed contraption to tiny pieces and then burn the tiny pieces sending them to hell. Maybe he had some _minor_ anger issues…

And then there was the source of his current state… Soon after Marik had left, Bakura had tried calling him, no answer. He had tried sending him a text message, again no answer. He had tried both of those several times but received and accomplished absolutely nothing. He hadn't actually visited the Egyptian yet… He knew that was probably the only way to untangle this mess but the other wanted nothing to do with him if anything could be concluded from his lack of cell phone use.

The worst part was that he didn't even know why the other acted the way he did. It was obvious enough that Marik was angry with him but he had no idea why. What had he done wrong? He had thought back to the time when Marik had stormed off and had been able to come up with one reason why the other acted the way he did; the kiss. That just had to be it.

Bakura felt like banging his head on something hard every time he thought of it. How could have he been so stupid and inconsiderate? Of course Matik didn't want to be kissed, not by him and he was probably angry because his opinion hadn't been asked. But he could have swore that the response was there! And what about the time when they woke up on the couch? There was something there! Why couldn't this be easy? Why couldn't other people be simple?

He was tired but unable to rest or sleep, he was frustrated and confused but most of all he was sad. Bakura missed Marik. He missed the time he spent with him, he missed that smug, annoying smirk, the occasional sincere smile or laugh, he missed the small arguments and the warm feeling the other was able to reduce, hell, he even missed the smart-ass remarks the other some times had. He felt so empty and hollow without his companion, like a piece was missing. And to think it had only been a few days… What about if he would lose the other for good because of his action?

Bakura knew that he was in no shape to go to work tomorrow but that didn't mean that he wouldn't go, being the stubborn person he was. Besides, if he wouldn't show up on his first day he was sure to lose the job and he could afford that.

"Damn you Marik…"

……………………………….

"Damn you Bakura…" Marik mumbled to him self as he sat on the kitchen counter and sipped on his coffee. It was well past midnight already and coffee wasn't something you'd normally drink on such an hour but currently the black-brown liquid was the only thing keeping him sane, or that's what it felt like. At least it was the only thing keeping him from going to a full zombie mode. He hadn't slept and only nibbled on his food the past few days and he probably looked horrible. He knew his siblings were worried about him and were trying to find out what was wrong, failing to do so since Marik didn't feel like explaining the situation to them. 'Oh it's nothing. I just thought that there might have been something more between me and this other guy but it turns out that there isn't and I ended up feeling jealous of my self.' Yeah, he could see it now… That would go just swell…

"Hmph, it's not like I care, anyway…" He had also taken the habit of talking to himself recently, another reason for his siblings to worry. "I don't." That was a big fat lie and he knew it. If he didn't care why was he loosing sleep over it? Why was he feeling so angry with the other and with him self? With himself for he felt that he had let himself to be led on and for being so stupid. With Bakura because… Just because!

He didn't have to tell or even acknowledge his reasons. The only thing he needed to acknowledge was his time to time aching head and the small fact that he occasionally was able to hear his other personality's taunting voice. The medication wasn't keeping him away like it should and Marik felt like there was a thin wall between himself and his other, the meds were helping to strengthen the wall but it was still wearing more thin and would crack given a small poke. Too bad the wall wasn't sound proved; the voice of his other was driving him up the wall. Of course he hadn't told about his problems to anyone. He didn't need his siblings to fuss over it, he could handle this by himself.

"_You're just angry because he doesn't want you the way you want him to."_

And there it was; that god dammed, rip-your-hair-off annoying voice back to taunt him. "Shut up, leave me alone."

"_Tch, tch. It's no use denying it. You want him to want you, to **love** you, to put his tongue down your throat and kiss you, you want him to fu-."_

"Didn't I tell you to shut the hell up already!" Marik snapped at the voice. He didn't want to hear any of this. He didn't need to hear any of this. Too bad the voice didn't want to shut up just yet.

_"Oh but you know I'm right, my other. Funny how he's even willing to kiss me rather than you, isn't it? Ah, it felt so nice, he tastes so fine and isn't a bad kisser at all…"_

"SHUT _UP_!" He cried, only to hear the voice laugh cruelly. Suddenly a light went on in the previously dark room.

"Marik! Are you alright? What's wrong? Why are you yelling?" The worried, slightly panic-ing voice of Ishizu came from the door and she rushed to her brother's side. "Marik?"

"I-it's nothing, really… Sorry I woke you up." He shooed his sister away from him and quickly ran to his room where he could be alone. He wanted so desperately to be alone. No, he wanted to be with Bakura. He wanted his other to go away, to leave him be. Oh how he loathed him! He was the sole reason why his life was so fucked up!

"Bakura…" He whispered to the darkness of his room and pulled his legs to him, sitting on his bed, and leaned his head to his knees. His room had been in terrible shape after his other personality's come back but it had been fixed by now and was once again livable. He felt so cold, hungry, tired, in other words right out miserable. Marik remembered the warmth he and Bakura had shared when sleeping on the couch back then. He suddenly felt even colder and hugged his knees tighter. He blamed his misery on his other personality. He hated him!

"I hate you…" Marik turned and punched the wall behind him. "I hate you! Hate, hate, hate!" With every 'hate' he uttered, he punched the wall until his knuckles were starting to bleed. The teen looked at his knuckles before he leaned his head back on his knees and a violent shudder ran through him.

He couldn't do anything about his other, not at the moment but maybe… maybe he could fix things with Bakura… He was so tired of not being able to be with him, being able see him and talk to him. Finally, after staying up for so long, Marik felt sleep taking over his tired being. While he slept, curled up in a tight ball, he dreamt that a pale hand came and pulled him out of the darkness he was falling into.

…………………………………

The morning had eventually come and the teen had left to work. It was nearing midday now and he was currently located in the storage room in the back of the museum. He was supposed to make some sort of list of the things there. So there he was, carrying a notepad and a pen, writing down the stuff he saw. The work was really boring… Earlier he had run some errands for the other workers and filled some papers. Thank god for the vending machine in the back office, it was a regular lifesaver and kept him awake. He brought the coffee cup to his lips while filling in a name of some ancient artifact he wouldn't be able to recognize without the convenient nametag it had on it. Ishizu, who was his supervisor by some freaky twist of fate, yay, had told him not to touch anything. He hadn't, really, but some of the objects looked very interesting and valuable. Finally he listed the last piece of ancient crap and left the stinking storage room.

Bakura was supposed to hand over the list to Ishizu so he went looking for her. He found her explaining something to a few visitors of the museum and lifted his notepad to wave at her, indicating that he was done. She noticed and nodded before turning back to the visitors. The teen decided that it was time for a break and headed to his friendly neighborhood vending machine. He inserted a few coins and pressed for the regular coffee.

"How many cups are you going to have?" Ishizu spoke from behind him.

"Enough."

He could hear her sigh. "It's not healthy, to not sleep and being powered by coffee. You have to be able to do your job properly, you know."

Now Bakura turned to look at her. "What are you, my mother?"

"Thank god I'm not…" She said with mock relief. "But I still think you should take better care of yourself. You can't go on like this."

Bakura just turned his head to the side and pretended that he didn't hear her. He knew she was right, he wouldn't be able to go on like this for very long but it was not like he _wanted_ to stay up all night and watch crappy TV shows, not being able to sleep. He didn't exactly have a choice. To get some sleep he would have to take action but he didn't really know what he should do… Go to Marik and say; 'Hey, I'm sorry I kissed you. Can we still be friends?' ? It was very unlikely that he would do something like that, the changes were slim to none. So what could he do? He wasn't the kind to just sit back and wait for faith to work everything out; it wouldn't anyway.

A familiar voice cut through his musings. "Hey, Bakura!"

The teen noticed now his brother and the midget boy coming towards him and absently lifted his hand in greeting though he did wonder why was Yuugi here. He decided to voice his thoughts as well.

"What's he doing here?"

"Oh, Yuugi and I were just hanging out and decided to come and see you. So how are things?"

"Boring but hey, at least I can get coffee." He answered and drank from his cup. "After… five cups I'm actually starting to feel better." He continued a bit sarcastically.

Ishizu had her brake then as well so she stayed and chatted with them. The discussion somehow lead to neighbors and such as Ryou told about the many times Bakura had pissed off their neighbors and almost got them kicked out of the building. Like last time when he threw the ball at the wall repeatedly, driving the neighbors nuts and almost getting their apartment burned by a pissed of neighbor. Ishizu had fun listening to the tales while Bakura didn't.

"That reminds me." She started and glanced meaningfully at Bakura who turned his guarded gaze at her. "I heard an interesting complaints from a couple of elderly people who live down the street from us."

He felt that he might know what she was talking about. Why did she have to bring that up now?

"You see, they came to talk to me last week, telling that they didn't want to watch my brother and his 'boyfriend' doing any 'questionable activities' in public in our otherwise decent neighborhood."

"Oh that…"

Ryou and Yuugi were now both watching him intently, eager to hear what was this all about. Bakura could have swore that she had done this on purpose to embarrass him. It was probably some strange from of revenge. Were everyone possessed by some kind of evil spirit these days?

"I don't know what did they tell you but that was done as joke, you know, to freak them out." He shrugged trying to look casual. "They did call us faggots after all."

Ryou and Yuugi changed glances and Ishizu raised an eyebrow.

"Had they some reason to call you that or…?" She left the question hanging in the air and Bakura realized that he should have just shut up.

"Well… uh…" Damn, what was he supposed to say? "The situation was kind of suggesting, I guess but it was not like we… did anything."

"Hey you, time to get back to work! Ishtar, your doing a tour and new kid is going with you!" It was some other worker who called out for them, saving Bakura for now. He did really appreciate being called 'new kid' though…

Ryou and his friend decided to leave since they had work to do and with a quick bye were off. The tour was rather uneventful. They just walked through the museum, Ishizu mainly telling stuff to the people and answering their stupid questions that any kid in pre-school could answer. She had an amazing amount of patience with them and was specialized in what else but Ancient Egypt but could answer the questions about other historical stuff also. Bakura would have never had the patience to do her job and slightly had to admire her for that, of course he would never admit it in a million years.

………………………………….

Marik was hungry. He had slept a couple of hours last night quite peacefully and now he was out to find some food. He however soon discovered that there was little food in the house so he would have to go out to get some if he didn't want to starve. The teen decided to go to The Ankh and Scale because he could maybe get a discount.

The restaurant was near the center, in a smaller street and it didn't take long for him to get there since he had been there many times before.

Shadi had his shift behind the counter and Marik wasn't very happy about this but he was hungry enough to go in anyway. The turban clad Egyptian noticed him soon.

"Hey, Marik! What brings you here?"

"I'm starving."

"It looks like it's your lucky day, then." Shadi pointed at the sign, which said that if you bought a meal you could get another with half the price. "Special offer. Only today."

Marik thought it over and got an idea. He was a bit unsure about it but maybe he could just not starve and make up with Bakura. He ordered two meals to go and headed for the museum.

………………………………….

After the tour was over Bakura realized that he was starving. He hadn't eaten anything the whole day, seeing that he had skipped breakfast and had been powered by coffee. In the morning he hadn't felt too good and didn't feel like eating so he had just left to work without breakfast. Now the not eating was making itself known and his stomach was making displeased noises.

The teen thought that he could skip out quickly to get something to eat, he didn't have anything to do now and no one would notice. He was just heading out when he smelled something; food. He turned to see the source of the sent and spotted _him_ coming towards a bit awkwardly, carrying something. Bakura just stopped on his tracks and waited for the other, wondering what he wanted. Marik soon reached him and placing an apologetic on his face, he held up the two bags of food.

"Um, hi… You hungry?"

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**A/N:** The perfect place to leave it, right? lol Don't skip meals kiddies, it's not healthy. I didn't think I would be able to write even the amount of angst in this chapter, I'm no good with angst, but by some miracle I managed to write it anyway and feel almost pleased with it. 

Please press the pretty purple button before you go and leave me a **review**! 


	15. Chapter 15 Sleep at last

**A/N:** I decided to start writing this chapter now even though I should be studying to my exams… I have biology, religion, English, Swedish and math, I don't have to study much on the English exam though. This (and the next) chapter is for the emotional development they need to get through the fic to the (happy) ending. Yes, this is going to end happily :) I seriously considered killing them all in the end but that would be wrong and I just can't write that. That would be the easy way out in the sense that I wouldn't have to even consider about making a sequel or anything, which I most likely will not do, maybe a one-shot or a side plot thingy tops.

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Silence set between the two before Bakura grabbed the meal and Marik with him to the museum staircase. He sat the Egyptian down on the stairs and started rampaging through his share as if he hadn't seen food for days. Marik sat there watching him rather stupefied. He had expected the other to maybe yell at him, just walk away from him or at least frown at him but he had done nothing of the sorts, instead he just started to munch down his food. The teen vaguely realized that they were sitting right next to sing that said: 'No eating or drinking inside the museum, please' and glanced at Bakura who paid no heed to it. Marik opened his bag and tried to eat some of the food but soon discovered that he couldn't and just stared at it for a good while, not really knowing what to do or say. He thought that he would be happy to eat and for the fact that Bakura hadn't completely shunned him but he wasn't.

"Bakura…"

The teen stopped eating at the sound of his name and settled to listen.

"I'm sorry…" He had the aching feeling that he shouldn't be the one to feel sorry upon reflecting on the things his other half had said but if it would make things ok again he would be as sorry as he needed to be, even for Bakura's behalf.

"That's bullshit!" Spat Bakura suddenly and Marik raised his eyes from his bag to his eyes. "Don't say you're sorry if you aren't." Now the anger Marik had expected was there, whirling in Bakura's dark eyes.

"I was just… I wanted to make things better…"

"By saying an empty sorry after you've been avoiding me? Yeah, that's ought to work, Ishtar."

That was the first time he had ever called Marik by his last name, it stung and the cold tone of voice made it stung even deeper. He couldn't look him in the eye any more so he pretended to find his food very interesting. "What do you expect me to do then? Because if being sorry isn't good enough, I really don't know."

"How about you tell me what the hell is going on and I'll think of a way for you to redeem yourself."

Marik looked back up at the other. He didn't need to…! "For me to redeem myself? What about you?"

"What about me?"

Gods he could be so annoying… "You and your…! You!" He didn't exactly know what he was trying to say so he just threw his hands up in frustration. "ARGH! Forget it! I'm going home!" He stood up quickly and tried to leave but was stopped by Bakura who had reached out to grab his arm.

"You are not going anywhere before I know what's the matter with you."

Marik tried to pull his arm off the other's grasp but he held on too tight. "_You_ are in no position to tell me where can I go and let go off me."

"No! I didn't loose my sleep for nothing! You are going to tell me what's wrong right now!"

Marik stopped trying to get away for a second and blinked at Bakura. So he had lost sleep over this as well? "You haven't been able to sleep?" The teen asked carefully.

"No and I've been a real bastard lately because of it too."

"Heh, like that's something new; you're always a bastard Bakura."

Bakura frowned a bit. "Well, I've been even a bigger bastard then. Enough about me, what's going on with you?"

"Could you let go of me? You're cutting the blood circulation of my arm."

"You promise not to run away?"

"Promise."

The white haired one let go. "Spill."

Marik sighed and rubbed his neck awkwardly. "It's complicated…."

"What isn't?"

"Well…" He didn't know how he should explain this to Bakura or how much he should tell. "It's… I uh… I don't know how to begin…"

"It's about the kiss, isn't it?" Bakura asked, voice blunt but he refused to look at Marik who blinked, a slight pink tint on his cheeks.

"Kinda…"

"Oh." Bakura ran his hand through his hair. "I didn't mean to… If you aren't ok with it…"

"Huh? No, it's not that." Marik hurried to explain. "It's just that um…" Damn, why is it so hard?

"Yes?" The other asked feeling curious about this now and stepped closer to properly hear his answer.

"Well, uh…" There's no way this could be this hard! Marik's face felt hot and he was uncomfortable under Bakura's gaze. Okay, here goes nothing. "How come you kissed my other and… and couldn't kiss me like that?"

Bakura stared. He hadn't expected anything like that and his stare got Marik feeling even more uncomfortable. He just wished that he would react in some way, any way.

The reaction came; Marik was hit upside the head. "Idiot. I didn't kiss your other half for the sake of kissing him; I wanted to get you back."

The blond rubbed the back of his head. "You didn't have to hit that hard…"

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Yeah I did. I had to knock some sense into you." He frowned as if realizing something. "Wait… You were _jealous_?"

"No!" Since when had he started lying to Bakura? He had been jealous, that's why he ran out on him. Maybe he was just afraid to admit it because that would mean that he liked Bakura more than in just friendly way. Yes, he liked him and cared about him but that's what friends do right? Or maybe his darker half was right… "I hate him and I thought that you might…"

"Do I have to hit you again?" The other asked annoyed. "I wanted to get rid of him, okay? I thought that this was about that you were angry with me because I kissed you but it was about me kissing your other and not you." He paused a bit, frowning again. "Wait… I did kiss you so what's the problem?"

"Uh, you didn't like you did him…"

Bakura looked at him strangely and raised his brow. "Just because I had to?"

"No, I mean you didn't… like, you know!" He yelled feeling frustrated once again because of his lack of words to explain how he felt.

"Actually, I don't think I do."

Marik knew that Bakura was a smart person but gosh, he was so thick some times. "You just pecked me."

"You mean that I didn't tongue you?" Bakura's eyebrow shot a bit higher and Marik blushed. Did he have to be so blunt? He could be a bit subtler; the situation was embarrassing enough already.

"You don't have to put it that way…" He mumbled.

"Okay but that's what this is about?"

Marik sifted his weight from one leg to the other. "Basically, yeah…" He glanced at the other to see how he would react but his expression didn't give away anything. He wished that it would but no such luck. "I can understand if you… I mean you just did it because you had to and the last time you had to Ryou of our backs-." A pair of lips stopped Marik's rambling. The other circled his arms around his waist, pulling him close and pressed his forehead against his.

"Shut up." Bakura whispered, red-ish eyes intensely gazing at Marik's wide purple ones.

"Okay…" He had tensed up first but now he relaxed in Bakura's embrace and wrapped his arms around the other's neck, sighing contently and letting his eyes close. He suddenly realized how heavy his eyelids were and how tired and hungry he really was.

"Hey, don't fall asleep on me now. You'll have to eat first, then you're welcome to crash in my place, it's closer anyways." Bakura continued whispering and led them back to the food. "Here." He handed Marik his bag of food, the teen had conveniently fell to sit on his lap when he sat down on the stairs.

"Thanks." Marik mumbled and actually ate the contents of the paper bag under Bakura's watchful eye. "When does your shift end?" He asked between the bites.

"Soon enough. Wait for me, okay?"

"Sure."

Marik let Bakura get back to his work and waited, looking around the exhibition though he had seen it many times before, seeing that his sister worked there. Time didn't actually fly by but he managed anyway and his sister kept him company when she was able, after she noticed that he was there. She was still clearly worried but it lessened when she learned that he had actually eaten properly for once. Ishizu made a mental note to thank Bakura later for whatever he had done to get her brother back to normal. But she did also have a feeling that this whole ordeal was because of the white haired teen or had something to do with him. Who else had the power to through her brother so out of balance?

"I'm glad you're feeling better, brother. What on Earth did he say to you?"

"Oh he just told me that I'm an idiot." Marik answered with a shrug. He was glad to be an idiot for once instead of the ingenious person who was always right. Ishizu looked a bit puzzled but didn't press on it.

The time unit of 'soon enough' eventually went by and Bakura came to find Marik. At the sight of him, Ishizu came and hugged him with one arm before making her dignified exit, leaving Bakura dumbstruck. He stared after her for a while before turning to Marik for an explanation. "What the…?"

Marik smiled at his stupefied expression. "She was just crateful that someone finally told me what an idiot I am." Bakura blinked stupidly, clearly not getting what was so great about that. He told people that they were idiots all the time but this was the first time someone had thanked him for that.

"Oh come on." Marik took Bakura's hand and started to lead the teen out of the museum, towards his home. "I'm so tired I could fall asleep standing."

……………………………………

Once they made it to Bakura's apartment and Marik immediately crashed on the couch.

"Ryou? You home?" Bakura called out for his little brother but received no answer and wondered where could he be.

"'Kuraaa… There's a note on the table." Told Marik's tired voice from the depths of the couch and his hand was raised to point at the small coffee table in the middle of the living room. Bakura picked the note up and read:

To Bakura; I went to Yuugi's and will be back later today, in time to prepare dinner. Ryou He frowned a bit at Ryou's neat handwriting. He spent way too much time with that midget kid but then again, maybe it was better that he wasn't home. "Why so blue?" Marik asked. He had raised his head from the couch enough to see him. "Ryou is at Yuugi's again." "Yuugi… Is he that short kid with weird hair?" "Yeah…" He started to walk towards his room but was stopped by the Egyptian's voice. "Where do you think you're going?" Bakura turned back at him. "To my room, why?" "Stay with me?" Marik made his own imitation of puppy dog eyes, not managing to pull of Ryou's innocence though. "No way I'm sleeping on the couch. If you want to sleep with me, you'll have to drag your carcass to my room." He vaguely realized hat that had sounded a bit double minded but was too tired to care right now. Marik reluctantly got up from his spot on the couch and followed his companion to the other, messier room. "Do you ever clean?" Marika asked making a face at the room's condition. "If it's not good enough for you, feel free to go back to the couch." Bakura crawled on his bed and placed his arms behind his head, looking at the sealing above. Marik came next to him anyway after a while but kept his distance. "I don't want to be alone…" Bakura glanced at him and reached out to pull him close, Marik curled next to him and nuzzled his head on his chest. It wasn't long until the two tired teens fell asleep

. …………………………………

When they woke up it was already a bit dark out and sounds were coming from the kitchen, indicating that Ryou was home. Bakura glanced at Marik next to him and realized that he was already awake, watching him intently.

"How long have you been awake?" He asked and the other smiled a bit tiredly.

"Awhile. I didn't want to wake you up; you looked so peaceful." The teen reached for a few strands of Bakura's hair and started to play with them absently. "Ryou came home…"

"Mm-hmm…" Mumbled Bakura and closed his eyes.

"Maybe we should get up. It's getting late and I need to get out."

"Why?" 

"I've been inside too much, it's driving me nuts."

"Oh… I can take you out tomorrow…" The white haired teen continued to speak quietly.

"Out?" Asked Marik. "Like on a date?"

"Yeah, if you want to… Some time after work." Now the teen opened his eyes to see the other's reaction. Marik looked thoughtful for a second before his face brightened up again.

"Sure. Let's get up, I have to go."

"You can stay for dinner, I'm sure Ryou wouldn't mind." Bakura offered and got up with the other.

"Okay."

They went to the kitchen where Ryou was just about done with the meal. He noticed the two and smiled. "You're awake. It was about time you got some sleep." The last part was meant for Bakura who looked a bit awkward.

"Um, yeah…"

"Don't worry, no hard feelings for the bastard-ness. You had a lovers quarrel, I can understand that." Ryou said while handing the plates and cutlery to his brother to put on the table.

"I thought you weren't-."

"Are you staying, Marik?" Ryou cut his brother's protest short and paid no heed to his angry grumble. Marik nodded and while snickering to Bakura's childish pout went to help him.

They ate dinner together. Ryou was subtly trying to find out what had the fight been about but didn't have much luck since they really didn't want him to know; it would just add steam to Ryou's attempts at getting them together though he had promised to stop bothering them about that. They had a light chat about various things that didn't really mater but were fun to talk about. After the dinner Marik announced that it was time for him to head home and said bye to Ryou and told Bakura he'd be seeing him tomorrow. After the Egyptian had left the brothers cleaned up the dishes and settled to spend a quiet evening.

…………………………………..

Later that evening when the brothers were watching TV Ryou's cell phone rang and he picked it up.

"Ryou."

Bakura continued to watch TV while his brother talked to someone on the phone. It didn't sound like it was one of his friends since Ryou sounded a bit too formal. The TV showed some wild life document again; it was apparently about hedgehogs and about their behavior in modern cities. To Bakura it was really uninteresting but it was the best thing on right now and Ryou thought hedgehogs looked so cute, not huggable, but cute anyway. Bakura had failed to realize what was so cute about large pincushions with feet though.

"Would you like to speak with Bakura?"

The sound of his own name woke him up from his bored state and he turned to Ryou who glanced at him.

"Okay, I see… Okay. Bye." Ryou hung up and frowned at the phone for a while before addressing his brother.

"They have moved dad's funeral to a later point…"

"Why?"

"I'm not really sure but he said something about having trouble organizing them."

Bakura snorted. "Figures. When are they then?"

"A week later then originally planed."

"But that's school week."

The break was coming to an end and it wouldn't be long before they would have to get back to school. The funeral was originally supposed to be next week, a week before school started, but now because of problems in the organizing end they would be held on a school week.

"I know. We'll just have to organize it somehow. I'm sure they will understand, it's our father after all…"

Bakura crossed his arms. "Yeah but that's still very unthoughtful of them."

"Hmph, says the king of all thoughtfulness…" Ryou said teasingly and earned a glare from Bakura.

* * *

**A/N:** There you go :) The next chapter will feature the date, obviously, so stay tuned. As for the funeral being bushed back; I need some time to do the stuff I have in mind before they leave for Egypt so… My Microsoft Word says that 'unthoughtful' is not a word and I could swear that it is. Is it? o.0 I could be wrong… 

Please review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


	16. Chapter 16 The date

**A/N:** Back with a new chappie! I've been a bit busy with school and my other continuing fic but now I have time to work on this :) As I said, this will feature the date so enjoy!

* * *

Marik had gone home last evening or more like skipped home. He had gone strait to bed again, still smiling like a lovesick idiot. His face was starting to cramp from all the smiling and his siblings were starting to get freaked out. They were looking at him weirdly as he came to the breakfast table but he pretended not to notice their stares.

"Um, Marik?" Ishizu addressed him as he sat on the table. He looked at her as a sign of acknowledgement and started eating his toast.

"How are you feeling?" She asked and tried to smile but failed rather miserably.

"Great!" Exclaimed Marik happily. "And how about you?" He continued with his cheerful tone, which freaked Ishizu and other occupants of the table a bit.

"I'm fine… Is there a reason why you're feeling so great?"

"I'm going out with Bakura." Stated Marik casually and reached for some coffee while Ishizu and Rishid changed glances.

"That's the reason you're so cheerful and…happy?"

He grinned widely over the rim of his mug. "Yep! This is so great! Oh, sis, you will have to help me decide what to wear."

"Ah well… I'm sure you'll be fine just like you are…"

Marik looked at himself and then strangely at his sister. "In my pajamas?"

"I didn't mean that… Just wear what you usually do."

"But that would be boring! I want to wear something special."

"Why is that? You never acted like this when you were going out with some girl…" Ishizu said with a frown. She just couldn't see what was so special about this Bakura that made her brother act this way.

"Yeah but he is different!"

"Okay, fine. I just don't see what's so special about him."

"Well, you don't know him like I do."

Deciding that that was the end of discussion, Marik left the kitchen, his half eaten breakfast and confused siblings behind. They just couldn't see him like he did…

…………………………….

Bakura's day at work had started relatively well seeing that he had been sent to a storage room again. This was the other storage room, the one that was even older than the other and dustier. The teen sneezed yet again and cursed under his breath. He did not like storage rooms one bit and was starting to hate all the ancient stuff as well. Why was he the one who had to do all the nasty, dusty work? He would probably end up with asthma or something…

To prevent himself from totally loosing his mind in this dusty hell, Bakura entertained himself with thoughts about his up coming date and with the most important question; where the hell was he going to take Marik? It wasn't like he had planned on asking him out, it had just kind of happened. Now he had the problem of deciding where would they go. He didn't want to go to some lame place like the movies but with his not so vast amount of imagination, that was where they'd most likely end up in. He thought about asking Ryou for help but decided against it. What did he know about dating? More than Bakura did most likely… Ryou had set up his brother for almost a year now after all.

"Are you done yet?" Asked the familiar voice of Ishizu from the door.

"Not yet!" He called back.

"Oh. Can you come here for a sec anyway? I want to talk to you about something."

"Ok…" He made his way to Ishizu. "What?"

"Are you seriously going out with my brother?"

Some how, he had seen that coming. "Yes. Why?"

She bit her lip before answering. "Don't hurt him… He's gone through a lot."

"Who hasn't… I'm not going to harm him. You don't have to go all over protective big sister on him, Marik can take care of himself and even if he can't, I can take care of him."

Ishizu nodded seriously. "I'm going to trust you on this but just so you know; if you make him unhappy in any shape or form, I'm going to hunt you down and hurt you so bad you wish you had never been born." After that she turned around and exited the storage room, leaving Bakura staring after her.

…………………………………

Much later that afternoon, Marik was making his way to Bakura's. They had agreed that he would come by after Bakura got away from work and then they would go to where ever they were going, he didn't really care.

Marik had gotten help choosing his clothes from his reluctant sister but in the end he had chosen his own clothing because he didn't like anything that Ishizu picked for him.

He made to the apartment and knocked on the door, waiting for someone to open it. He didn't have to wait for too long when the door opened. Ryou stood there and smiled at him.

"Hello! Wait, I'll get Bakura." He turned away from Marik and shouted in the apartment. "Bakura! Marik is here!" Some sort of strange mumble could be heard. Soon the teen emerged from his room and actually smiled at Marik, maybe even checking him out.

"Hi, let's go. Bye Ryou!"

"Bye! Have fun!" Ryou called back and closed the door after them.

"So where are we going?" Asked Marik walking down the stairs next to the other.

"Well, actually…" He looked a bit bothered. "I have no idea." He grinned sheepishly.

"Don't worry! You can leave it all up to me, The Marik will save your unimaginative ass." He declared making Bakura roll his eyes.

They walked for a while, chatting a bit, until they reached Domino center. Lots of people walked around and went and exited the stores, buying necessities or just looking around.

"Oh I know!" Marik suddenly exclaimed. "Over there!" He pointed to somewhere and Bakura turned to look at what he was pointing. A movie theatre.

"I don't know… Wouldn't that be sort of lame?"

"No, no." Reassured Marik the not so exited Bakura. "We can through popcorn at other people." Bakura's face lit up. Why hadn't he thought of that?

"Yeah!"

So they proceeded with their plan and went inside, quickly scanning over the list to see what was on. Nothing was of particular interest so they just went to see the movie most people went to see, that way they wouldn't get couth so easily.

………………………………..

They didn't get to see the whole movie for they were kicked out because they disturbed the peace. That didn't matter, the movie wasn't all that good anyway and besides they were starting to get hungry.

"I'm hungry…" Stated Marik when they were exiting the theater.

"You just ate a whole lot of popcorn."

"No I didn't, you used all my popcorn." He accused.

"That was only because you poured all _my_ popcorn on that kid in front of us!" Bakura accused back.

"No I- wait… Yes I did, but he was going to turn us in!"

"He _did_ turn us in!"

Marik was about to say something when his stomach made a displeased sound. "Okay, sorry. Can we go get something to eat now?"

"Sure. Where do you want to go?"

"Let's… go over there." He signaled towards the nearest food place. It was small and nice but the food looked great. It was self-service so they ordered and settled on a table near the windows.

"Gee, 'Kura, you must have taken the one with the most meat in it."

Bakura shrugged a bit. "I like meat."

Marik made a face. "Well, I'm a vegetarian."

"You are?" Bakura asked amazed, he didn't know that. And here he thought that they knew each other so well and yet it's possible to discover something like this. "I didn't know that."

"I guess it just never came up."

Their food arrived and they started eating. The food was good and they ended up ordering dessert as well.

…………………………………

After eating and walking around aimlessly for a while they decided that it was time to go home. Bakura being the gentleman he was… offered to escort Marik home, which he kindly accepted. On their way to Marik's they chatted and laughed and made fun of each other.

It was a shame that their time went so fast but all good must come to an end at some point and so must this as they could already see the Egyptian's house from where they were. They slowed down a bit but that didn't prevent them from reaching the house for long. They found each other in the doorstep far too soon.

Marik stood on the doorstep facing Bakura who stood on the path. He had his keys out but didn't really want to go inside just yet.

"So…" Bakura trailed off not really knowing what to say.

"Yeah…" Marik was suffering of the same problem.

There was silence between them for a while before Marik spoke again. "I had fun."

"Yeah, me too… Maybe I should go now." Bakura was just about to turn away and leave when Marik suddenly pulled him close by his shirt and crushed their lips together. To say that Bakura was surprised would be an understatement as his eyes widened at the sudden contact. Marik paid no heed but wrapped his arms around the other's neck and licked his lip a bit for entrance, which was granted when Bakura began to kiss back. He joined his tongue with Marik's and pushed him against the door as he started to dominate the kiss. Bakura wrapped his arms around Marik's waist and pressed them close enough to feel each other's heart beat. Marik's hand found it's way inside the other's shirt as he played with his canine, emitting a moan from Bakura. Marik smiled into the kiss, satisfied with the reaction. His keys fell down on the grass and were forgotten there as the two were too involved in their dance of tongues.

Suddenly and all too soon they fell back as someone opened the door.

"AAAH!"

They found themselves lying in a tangled heap on the floor of the Ishtar residence. Bakura who had landed on top had hit his face on the floor. "Aw fuck!" He cursed none too gracefully. Marik on the other hand was staring up on his sister's shocked face.

"Uh… Hi sis. What's up?"

"You certainly are not." She spat. "What on Earth is going on here? I hear a voice and open the door only to have you two almost fall on me!"

"Well, we were just… um…"

Bakura got up to a sitting position so that he too could see Ishizu who stood there in her bathrobe, staring down on them, waiting for an explanation. "I was just escorting Marik here home and we got involved in… an activity and then you kind of interrupted us."

Ishizu blinked. "What sort of activity are we talking about?" She asked eyeing them both.

"Making out." Bakura stated bluntly and Marik slapped his forehead and groaned.

"I see…" She finally said after a short silence. "Bakura, home. Marik, with me." She ordered shortly but effected-ly. The two got up with each other's help.

"I'd better go, your sister looks pissed." Bakura mumbled and Marik nodded.

"Yeah… Bye. I sure hope she isn't planning to give me the talk or something."

"I'm right here." Ishizu reminded them, crossing her arms.

"Uh, yeah… Bye." Bakura waived and walked out of site, leaving Marik at the mercy of his sister.

"Please come with me to the kitchen." She said and Marik fallowed her. Once in the kitchen, the place for important discussions in the Ishtar family, she started. "Brother, explain please."

"How did you think a date between two hormonal teenage boys would end?"

"To be quite honest, I didn't think two hormonal teenage boys would end up dating each other."

"Sister please! I really thought more highly of you. I mean, I didn't think it would matter to you…"

Ishizu sighed and rubbed her temples. "Marik… I didn't mean it like that. It's just… Why him?"

"That's it? You just don't like him?"

"No, I don't." She said coldly.

"But why?"

"His company is not good for anyone. I tried to be nice to him, I really did try to get along with him for your sake and he just doesn't… He just blows it up my face!"

Marik was amazed to see his sister like this. It was really rare for her to loose her cool composure. "Are you saying I can't see him? That's what this is all about?"

"No! I can't deny his company from you but I expect you to take a couple of days to think things through first, are we clear?"

"Yes… Does this mean I'm grounded?"

"Not grounded but excepted to stay away from him." With that the discussion was over. There was no use arguing when Ishizu got like this and Marik made his way to his room. He shut the door and leaped on his bed and buried his face in the pillow, screaming to himself. How come things were never easy? Always so complicated… Now he was excepted to not see Bakura for god knows how long. A thought hit him and he dug up his cell phone. Ishizu didn't say anything about calling or text messaging him though….

………………………………

Once Bakura got home he was bombarded by Ryou.

"How was it? Did you have fun? Where did you go? What did you do? How come you're back so soon?-." More questions were about to come but Bakura raised his hand to prevent them.

"To answer your questions in order; it was great, we had fun, we went to the movies and then to eat, we threw popcorn at people, I'm back now because Ishizu kicked me out once she busted us."

Ryou grinned. "Busted you doing, what?"

"We were making out, ok? Now you shut up about that!" Bakura yelled and Ryou saluted at him still grinning widely.

"Yes sir! Not a word."

"Good."

With that said and done he went to his room and shut his door, not wanting company. He sat on his bed just when his cell phone peeped as a sing that he got a message. He looked at his cell and discovered it was from Marik and smiled a bit when he checked what did he have to say.

_/Ishizu grounded me and we won't be able to meet for a while but we'll keep in touch, ok?/_

Bakura frowned at the fact that Marik was grounded and answered.

_/Bitch. Of course we will! I think I go to bed now. Nighty night, 'Riku./_

Just when he had changed in his pajamas his cell peeped again and he tucked under the covers to read it.

_/Good night 'Kura./_

He sighed and while still smiling to himself turned off the light and settled to sleep. It wasn't for long until sleep took over him and he fell in a peaceful slumber.

* * *

**A/N:** Done:) If you're wondering where 'Riku came from then: Ma-ri-ku, take away the first syllable and you got ri-ku, see? I though that would be good. At least I don't think there's another fic in this site where he's called that. (Everyone is falling through doors xD) 

**Please review! **


	17. Chapter 17 Coming with me

**A/N:** This is the second to the last chapter people! Thank you for reading and reviewing :) I'll most likely thank you again in the next chapter but anyways…

* * *

It had been about a week since the date and the situation at Marik's had calmed down a bit but he still wasn't able to get out as much as he would have liked. Or that's what Bakura had discovered while being engaged in one of the long phone calls that would raise their phone bills to the skies above.

The white haired teen was lying on his bed, talking to Marik. Since they couldn't see each other, this was the next best thing.

"Man, that sucks!" Exclaimed Bakura to the cell phone.

/"I know! And now my pocket money is on ice…"/ Marik half whined from the other end.

"Well, you were stupid enough to get couth."

/"Hmph!"/ A silence settled between them and Bakura could guess that the other was probably pouting or something. Time to change the subject then…

"That reminds me; I haven't seen your sister at work for a while. Where did she go?" Bakura asked. He had been wondering that for some time, he normally saw Ishizu every day at work, not necessary a good thing but he was used to it by now.

/"She went to Tokyo. Some business for the museum I think. Miss her already?"/

"No way, just wondering. Now I have to take orders from that skinny old guy, he pisses me off without end." Bakura frowned at the laugh at his misery.

/"Aaww… Poor 'Kura! Better get Ishizu back to boss you around before you get too sick of the old guy."/ Some more laughing was heard. /"Don't worry, she'll be back before you notice."/

"It's easy for you to laugh now…"

/"I have to keep myself entertained somehow, you know."/

A sly smirk took over Bakura's features as he spoke. "I could keep you entertained if only I was allowed to see you…"

"Do I hear a certain innuendo in that statement?" Asked Ryou from the door and Bakura snapped his attention to him.

/"Who's that?"/

"Ryou…" He told Marik before addressing his brother. "Bug off."

The younger brother just rolled his eyes a bit. "About our flight to Egypt; do you want to take the night flight or the day one?"

"Night."

"Okay then. I'll just leave you to your… chat. Tell Marik I said hi." Ryou left the room after a glare from his brother.

"Ryou says hi." Bakura told Marik after Ryou left.

/"Ok. What was that about?"/

"Funeral trip. He's been fussing over it for days now."

/"Oh yeah… When are you leaving?"/

"Three days from now. Ryou got us days off from school, he can ask nicely."

/"Heh, I can believe that."/ They had been kind of putting off the subject of school. On the other hand, not too eager to go back there but on the other, no one could stop then from meeting at school and it was not like there were awful a lot of schools in Domino. /"I'll miss you…"/ Marik whispered and the other had some trouble catching it.

"It's only for few days."

/"Yeah…"/

………………………………..

Ishizu eventually came back from her trip to Tokyo before anything unfortunate could happen to the other museum worker. Work went like it usually did, except for the meaningful glances Bakura got from Ishizu every time their eyes met. It was really starting to bug him and he could wait or lunch hour to ask what the hell was her problem again.

He was just sweeping the floor with a mop and brooding over various things that just needed to be brood over, like how it was boring and rainy today and how the mop was so old and smelly, you know, stuff like that that just begged to be bitched about but since he had no one to bitch to he settled to brooding in stead.

He glanced at his watch again, which must have been the tenth time during the past five minutes, only to see that it was still well over half an hour before lunch and glared at his watch like it was it's fault.

"Stupid watch." He mumbled to him self and kept moping the floor with the old smelly mop. All mops could go to hell for all he cared, along with brooms, vacuum cleaners and other various cleaning objects that all hated him and the feeling was indeed mutual.

Finally, after a period in time that felt like forever, it was time for lunch brake. Bakura hurried to his new friend the coffee machine, inserted coins and got a cup of coffee. It wasn't for long until he spotted the very person he wanted to see, Ishizu, who was also heading towards the coffee machine.

"Oh, you." She greeted in her new oh so polite way and got her cup of coffee.

"Yes, me. Now what the hell is your problem this time?"

"You are my problem as always, Bakura. Why do you ask?"

"What did _I_ ever do to _you_? If this is about Marik again-!" Bakura started but was interrupted by Ishizu.

"Indeed it is. You are bad influence."

"And I'm damn proud of it too!" He declared proudly and Ishizu rolled her eyes.

"You just have no shame, do you? That's exactly why I don't like you."

"Feelings mutual, it's Marik I like and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't hang around you Ishtar people."

Ishizu stared at him for a while. "You really like him, like, _like_ like?"

"Yes, enough to put up with you." He sipped his coffee and waited for her reaction.

"How much do you like him?" She finally asked.

"I already told you; enough to put up with his annoying relatives!" He yelled.

"Enough to leave him alone if I tell you that your company is not good for him?"

"If I hear that from him then I might consider it."

"You are so selfish! Don't you ever think of anyone else besides yourself?"

"Who are you thinking when you tell me to leave Marik alone?!" Before he could quite grasp what happened he found hot coffee on his face, Ishizu had thrown her remaining coffee right at him and stormed off.

"Bitch!" Bakura yelled after her and wiped coffee off his face. "Shit, this burns."

"Bakura!" Called a familiar voice and through the coffee mess he could see Ryou looking worried and coming towards him. "What happened? I saw Ishizu running out cursing you and… Is that coffee?"

"Yes and it's hot too. Care to help me?"

Ryou hurried to help his brother out and wiped some coffee out with a tissue. "So what's going on? You didn't fight, did you?"

"Of course not! She just threw her coffee at me for the heck of it!" Bakura spat sarcastically.

"Oh, Bakura…" Ryou sighed and shook his head. "Here, wipe the rest of it off, I'll go find Ishizu and see if I can talk to her." He handed some tissues to Bakura and headed in the direction he had seen Ishizu going earlier.

"Watch out or she'll throw burning stuff at you!" Bakura yelled after him but Ryou paid no heed. Bakura grumbled to himself and wiped off the coffee, which was all over his shirt. It would leave a nasty stain.

"Damn that bitch…"

Ishizu and he weren't in the best of terms before but it had never been this bad. Now they surely hated each other. Why did everything have to be so complicated? Why did you have to be in good terms with the person's family you were interested in? It wasn't the family you were going to date anyway…

Bakura didn't know if Ryou ever got to talk to Ishizu or how it went because no matter how nasty stain he had on his shirt he was still stuck at work. The smelly mop waited him where he had left it unlike he had hoped for, he had hoped that someone would steal it or something but then again, who I their right minds would want to steal an old mop? So he was back to his work as the cleaning guy, going through the floors of the museum. There were a lot of floors since the museum was so large. Wouldn't it be nice to just cause a flood or something? That would clean the floors in no time flat! But then again, that would most likely get Bakura fired and despise his certain distaste towards his workmates he still needed the job and doubted that he could get another one in any time soon.

He started to whistle a song that Ryou always hummed when he was doing something and actually felt a bit better. His whistling was maybe a bit off tune but he didn't really care, just continued the merry little song he didn't know the words for and doubted that there were any.

Then all of a sudden the mop's handle snapped.

"Oh this is just great!" He cursed some more under his breath and went to get another one. When he reached the closet the mops and brooms and such were supposed to be he had already thrown the old mop out, along with it's broken handle. He found another mop and took it with out thinking much and closed the closet. On his way back to the spot he had been earlier he spotted a familiar looking hair sticking out the crowd.

It was Yuugi.

Bakura wondered what was he doing here but concluded that it has to have something to do with his brother. The two were always hanging out together these days for reasons Bakura failed to understand or didn't want to understand. It had something to do with that mushy friendship stuff anyway…

"Hey, Bakura have you seen Ryou?" Yuugi asked when Bakura passed him.

"He ran after Ishizu a couple minutes ago." Bakura replied shortly leaving Yuugi stand there and going back to work.

………………………………..

Marik was sitting in the house alone once again. He had positively read every book and magazine in the house, tried watching TV and even cleaned the entire place twice during this week only. He was just so bored he felt like dying. Currently he was sitting on the couch, eyes clued in space. The room was dim lit as it was starting to get dark out and he hadn't bothered to turn on the lights. He was his only company at the moment when the others went to do their own stuff. Marik hadn't cared to join them, he wasn't in the best of moods and still angry with his sister. He only wished he wouldn't have to be alone all this much, locked in the house. Sometimes it felt as if the walls were falling down on him. His own room was getting too small so he occupied the living room when the others weren't at home.

Marik hugged his knees and sighed.

"_There's no use whishing him here, he doesn't care anyway."_

"You shut up." The wall between him and his other was getting thinner and the voice was closer now. It had been taunting him about how Bakura made so little effort at coming to see him and claimed that he didn't care.

"He _does_ care, he's just busy at the work and when he gets off so does Ishizu and she'll be home before he has the change to come here." Marik explained at the voice who laughed.

"_That's your childish naivety speaking."_

"No, that's reason. If he wouldn't care, why would he call me on almost daily basis?"

"_Maybe he wants to get into your pants."_

"That's not the case here." Marik crossed his arms. "And maybe I want him in my pants, have you thought of that? Just leave me alone already!"

"_I thought you didn't want to be alone." _

"I want to be alone from you."

"_You know that I can't leave you alone, ever." _

"Can you at least shut up?"

"_No."_

Marik threw his hand in the air in frustration and buried his head in a pillow. He just couldn't take it anymore! The always taunting voice was driving him nuts.

"_You can't shut me up like that."_

He pressed the pillow down harder and pretended not to listen. It was no use though since they shared a mind. His other was just lurking there, always waiting for a chance to take over but he couldn't if Marik kept taking the medication and he knew it. The next best thing, if he couldn't take over, was mentally tormenting the current host.

"_You're so pathetic! I don't get what he sees in you."_

Marik just pretended not to hear him but it wasn't so easy as the voice got nearer. He started to hum a random tune and when the voice spoke again, he just hummed lauder. It was working for a while but he was running out of songs to hum.

_"You know, maybe your sister is right; he's bad news. You should just listen to her and stay away from him. Tell him to back off and see if he gives a damn. I bet he wouldn't, he'd just shrug and walk away, abandoning you for good, just like you deserve."_

"Shut up!" Marik sprang up from the couch and went to turn on the lights and TV, hoping to block out the voice saying those horrible things. He buried his head in his hands and focused on the sound of the TV. It was showing the news, something about a fire and missing persons, nothing good on the news as usual.

A sudden ring of his cell phone startled him and he picked the phone up. The caller ID said 'Kura' and Marik smiled a bit before answering. "Hi 'Kura, what's up?"

/"Nothing much. A bit weird at work, your sister threw coffee at me."/

"She did? Why?"

/"I'm not really sure but we were arguing about you again so I guess that's why."/

Marik sighed. "I should have known… I wish that she would just let it go already."

/"Yeah… What's that noise?"/

"What noise? Oh, it's just the TV."

/"Well, could you turn it off, it's distracting."/

"No… It'll become quiet if I do…" He said sounding bothered. The sound from the TV was preventing him from hearing the sound of his other. Bakura must have detected the stress in his voice.

/"Marik, are you alright?"/

"Yes… I mean no… I can hear him, Bakura! He's hunting me and won't shut up!"

/"You don't sound alright… Wait, I'm coming over."/

"What? You can't! What if- Bakura?" All he could hear was the peeping sound. The other had hung up.

………………………………..

Bakura quickly got out of the apartment, leaving Ryou to yell after him. Something was not right… He didn't need to ponder long who this 'he' was; it was obvious when he heard the distress in Marik's voice.

He hurried through the darkening streets towards the general direction of Marik's house. The shadows were tall around him and he had this eerie feeling the pit of his stomach. If the other was in trouble, he wanted to be there for him, he cared for him and didn't want any harm to come to him. Least of all he wanted the other to be taken over by his other personality. The memories of their last encounter were anything but pleasant and he didn't want to go through that again, nor did he want Marik to go through it. He knew that Marik hated the other personality with a passion and he really couldn't blame him.

Bakura could see the park in the distance and hurried his steps; he didn't want to get there too late… The worry was making him sick inside. Who would have thought that some day the other would come to mean so much to him? He wasn't sure of the depth of his emotions for he had never felt this way and had never been in love. Bakura had considered that he might just be in love with the other but didn't know for sure.

He could already see the house and fought the urge to run rest of the way; he could be all out of breath and panic-y when he got there after all. He was already walking as fast as he could without running and would soon reach the house.

When Bakura got to the house he faced a problem of how to get in. He couldn't just go knock at the door; they wouldn't let him in. After a quick look through the first floor windows he discovered that all of the family was at home, even Shadi was there though to his knowledge he didn't live there.

He traced the widow of Marik's room and spotted a drainpipe he could use to climb there. Once Bakura reached the window and glanced through it he saw Marik in the dark room, sitting on his bed, hugging his knees and rocking himself. The window wasn't locked so he opened it and climbed in to the room. The occupant soon noticed him and he could see fear in his eyes, they were wide and glassed over from time to time as if he had trouble to keep himself in the reality.

"Bakura… You shouldn't be here…" Marik whispered feebly and Bakura did something uncharacteristic. He ran across the room and sealed the other into a tight hug.

"Shhh… It's alright…" He spoke soothingly and sat on the bed in front of the other. He pressed his forehead against Marik's and placed his hands on the sides of his head. They didn't say a word, just sat there close to each other, enjoying the fact that they could be so close and listening to the other's breathing. This lasted for a while and Marik let go of his head and wrapped his arms around Bakura. He placed a small kiss on his lips and held on tightly.

"Thank you…" He whispered with a small smile tugging his lips.

"No problem." Bakura whispered back.

Neither of them wanted to let go but knew that they couldn't stay like this forever, eventually someone would come to the room and if Bakura were to be caught that certainly wouldn't bode well for them. They pulled away enough to look each other into eye but didn't let go.

"I can't just leave you here." Bakura said determined. "You're coming with me."

Marik blinked. "To where? Your place?"

"To Egypt. We're leaving tomorrow night. I can't leave you here for so long."

"But! They'll notice before that and know where to look."

Bakura shook his head. "We'll keep you hidden, I'm sure Ryou will agree with me if only you're willing to tell him about… your situation."

Marik looked down. "I don't know…"

Bakura forced him to look back up at him. "You can't stay locked in here! You are coming with me and that's final." He announced, not leaving Marik much choice in the matter.

"Ok…" Marik nodded.

"Pack your bags, we're leaving now."

Marik did just that, he quickly threw some clothes and other necessities into his bag and was done in record time. Meanwhile, Bakura put the extra pillows he could find under Marik's covers to make it seem that he was in bed. That would cover for him for some time but wouldn't work for long if someone were to look under the blankets.

"Ok, I'm ready." Informed Marik and Bakura nodded.

"Let's go then."

Quickly they climbed through the window and down the drainpipe. They took extra care to be as quiet as possible not to alert the other occupants of the house. They ran for the first part of their way to Bakura's apartment and settled to walk the rest of the way. Neither spoke a word before they reached the door of the apartment.

"Are you going to tell Ryou or will I?" Bakura asked.

"I'll tell him." The other answered and they went in. Ryou came to see them to the door and looked puzzled when he noticed the Egyptian with his brother.

"Um, hello Marik, nice to see you again." He sounded a bit uncertainly and Marik looked awkward.

"Hi…"

Bakura stepped in to enlighten the situation. "Marik is coming with us to Egypt."

* * *

**A/N:** There you go! Sorry for the long wait… I had a bit of a writer's block while doing this but I try to get the next chapter done sooner. I just noticed that Bakura and Marik's relationship isn't very psychical but I've been so concentrated on the emotional side that the psychical side has gotten less attention. Sorry if you wanted more action, maybe I'll try to find a vacant spot in the next chapter where I can fit some in. 

**Please review! **


	18. Chapter 18 The End

**A/N:** Hello again :) The last chapter everyone! I enjoyed writing this very much and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I have another on going story now and there's only so much soul to put into two fics at the same time, if you happen to like Deathshipping check it out! (Yes, terrible self advertising but this is my author's note so…) On with the story!

* * *

Ryou took all the new information he was given in and thought the whole thing out. He was quite understanding about Marik's problem but didn't approve on Bakura's methods of helping though he agreed on taking Marik with them to Egypt. They had just enough time to get an extra ticket before the flight was sold out.

It was morning now and sooner or later Marik's cover would be blown and his family would start looking for him. They agreed that he would stay in Bakura's room and hide in the closet if someone came to look for him, Ryou would open the door and tell that he wasn't there, that was far more believable than Bakura telling that though Ryou never liked lying. He had agreed just to help Marik who he considered as his friend.

The two were waking up in Bakura's bed and Ryou brought them breakfast. It was safer here and Marik no longer could hear the voice of his other, which he was thankful of. The sleep had been peaceful for once and now, when he had thought things through, he couldn't wait to get to Egypt, even though it meant that his family would get worried but it wasn't like he planned on staying there forever.

"Slept well?" Questioned Ryou while placing the trait on the bed.

"Yeah… Thanks." Marik answered with a smile and yawn. He glanced at his companion who was still lying down. "If you don't get up now, I will eat your share of the breakfast."

"Aw, you're so mean!" Fake whined Bakura with a smirk and rose up to kiss him on the cheek and wrapped his arms around him.

Ryou sighed and they both turned to him. "You guys look so good together." They smiled at him and he decided that now was a good time to leave them alone. He exited the room and left them to their breakfast.

Marik looked at the trait and frowned. "No coffee?"

"Ryou doesn't drink coffee." Explained Bakura and took a bite of his toast.

"Bummer… My morning won't start too well without coffee."

"You'll live."

………………………………..

They were playing Alias in Bakura's room just when the doorbell rang. It was later in the afternoon and Ryou was packing, telling Bakura that he should too but the older brother of course paid no heed to it. Ryou went to open the door and Marik was hurried in the closet.

Bakura closed his room's door and pressed his ear against it to hear what was going on. He heard Ryou speaking with a voice he couldn't recognize, which was a relief in a way because it wasn't someone who was after Marik. After the person had left Bakura peeked from his room.

"Who was it?"

"The postman, he wondered of someone called Mrs. Gawatari lived here. Never heard of her." Ryou shrugged and went back to his packing. Bakura went to get Marik out of the closet.

"It was just the postman." He said and Marik sighed in relief.

"That's good. Whose turn was it?"

"Mine." They started playing again seeing that they had nothing better to do. Bakura started explaining his word and Marik tried to guess. They were pretty good at the game, actually. Now, however there was a change in Marik's performance, he kept glancing at the door and fiddling with his card, not really concentrating in the game anymore. Bakura took notice of this soon.

"What's wrong?"

Marik laughed a bit nervously, scratching the back of his head. "I'm just waiting Ishizu to jump through the door screaming bloody murder."

"Heh, don't worry. She won't even realize that you're here." Bakura said smirking a bit and crawling behind the other. He looked at him puzzled. "Relax." Bakura whispered and started massaging his shoulders firmly but gently. It didn't take long for Marik to close his eyes and relax under his ministrations.

"Mmmmh… 'Kura, lower." He moaned and Bakura was all smirk as he complied. He bent to kiss and nib the other's neck.

"Feels good?" He asked lowly and Marik bent his head to give him better access to his neck.

"Yeees…" He purred.

Now this was a far better pass time than Alias. Bakura continued with his ministrations and Marik was in utter bliss, moaning and arching to his touch. The white haired teen was enjoying the reaction he was getting, all the little sounds he was able to make his companion produce. After getting low enough, he slipped one hand under Marik's shirt, feeling the warm skin there. He bid down on the tan neck, not hard enough to brake the skin but hard enough to get reaction.

"Ah!" Marik raised his other hand to burry it in Bakura's hair.

"Bakura, you should-." Ryou came through the door only to stop on his tracks and blush furiously. "I-I'm sorry, I should have knocked…"

Bakura glared at him, having his fun stopped so abruptly and Marik looked at him with glassed over eyes.

"Mmh, that's ok." Marik said though Bakura didn't agree. "'Kura, not in front of little Ryou. Hand out of my shirt." He ordered and Bakura obeyed with a grunt, pulling away. "You were saying?" Marik addressed Ryou who was so red he looked like a tomato.

"I-I just came to tell Bakura that he should pack since we're leaving to night…" Muttered Ryou.

"Oh ok, come on 'Kura. I'll help you pack." Said Marik and dragged Bakura up and to his closet to pick the stuff he wanted to take with him.

"I already packed your better clothes so you just take some casual ones and such, ok?" Ryou asked.

"Yeah, yeah…" Bakura mumbled and started going through his wardrobe. Marik came to help him having already packed his stuff and picked some clothes for him.

"No way I'm taking those with me!" Protested Bakura when he noticed what Marik had picked.

"Aw, why not?"

"Are you crazy? I'm not wearing leather in frigging Egypt! I'll get boiled alive!"

"But you would look so hot!"

"I would be hot too! Give me those!" He snatched back his leather pants from the disappointed Marik.

"No fun…"

"You'll have much more fun with me alive and un-boiled." Stated Bakura while showing clothes and other stuff in his suitcase and Marik's face lit up.

"You promise?"

"Yes, cross my heart. Which shirt? The black or the red one?"

"Hmm… I would have to say… The black one." He said after looking thoughtful for a moment.

"You seriously want to fry me don't you?" Asked Bakura and packed the red shirt. He didn't ask Marik's opinion anymore and soon he had packed all the stuff he needed.

"Oh good you're done." Ryou came to check on them after a while. "Let's have something to eat before we get going, shall we?" They all went to the kitchen where the food was waiting and dug in.

In the midst of their eating the doorbell rang again and Marik hurried to Bakura's room just in case. Bakura stayed in the kitchen to listen who it was.

"Hi Yuugi! What brings you here?" Said Ryou's cheery voice. Bakura frowned a bit wondering what was he doing here. If he just came to say goodbye to Ryou, he could have just called, no need to come hanging in their doorway. He listened but strangely enough didn't hear anything. Bakura grew suspicious and sneaked to see what was going on. Now he whished that he hadn't. By the door was his own little brother lip locked with the midget boy that supposedly was his friend. Bakura couldn't help but stare, eyes wide in shock. Now that, he hadn't seen coming… Why hadn't Ryou told him?

When the two finally separated Bakura quickly sneaked back into the kitchen. When Ryou came back he tried to look and sound casual.

"So who was it?"

"Yuugi, he wanted to say goodbye." Ryou told and sat back in the table.

"Oh." Bakura frowned but didn't press it. He would have time to do that later. He called Marik to come back and they continued to eat in silence.

………………………………….

Later that night they boarded the plane that was supposed to take them to Egypt. Marik's seat was actually farther away from the brothers' seats so Ryou offered to take it so he could sit next to Bakura.

"Isn't this nice? Look at all the lights!" Said Marik who had hogged the window seat, looking down on Domino.

"Yeah… When were you last to Egypt?"

"When we moved from there to Domino not so long ago. It's nice to get back."

"Hmm…" Bakura mumbled tiredly.

"You pale people are going to need lots of sun cream though." Marik said with a grin and the other 'hmph'ed. "Well, aren't you Mr. Talkative." But then he too settled to look out the window while he could still see some city lights.

Eventually he too became tired and yawned, eyes having trouble staying open. Marik glanced at Bakura and noticed that he was already asleep. The Egyptian placed his head on the other's shoulder who smiled and leaned his head on top of his subconsciously. They both were sound asleep and didn't notice when Ryou sneaked up on them and took a picture.

………………………………..

"Hey, hey wake up."

"Uh, what?"

"We're landing."

Bakura opened his eyes and saw Ryou who was trying to get him to wake up. There was warm weight on his shoulder, he turned to see and noticed Marik sleeping head against his shoulder. His lip's corner turned up and he shook him awake gently. "Marik, we're there soon."

"Hmm? Not yet…" He buried his head farther on Bakura's shoulder causing him to chuckle lightly.

"Wake up sleeping beauty."

"I don't want to…"

"Come on now, you can sleep at the hotel." Bakura took his head in his hands, raising it up and kissing him. Marik's eyes fluttered open and he smiled. "I knew that would work."

"So we're there?"

"Yep."

Fasten your seat belts light went on and Ryou went back to his seat. They landed on the airport and it was still dark out. All the people slowly flooded out of the plane and soon they were out looking for a cab to take them to the hotel. They eventually got one and got to the hotel safely. The hotel they were staying at was located a short distance away from the cemetery. They shared a three-person room on the tenth floor. All three settled to rest before the morning, the funeral would be the day after tomorrow so they would have the next day to go sight seeing.

When the morning came, they went down to have breakfast and headed out to see the city. They took a sight seeing tour, bought some souvenirs and ate out. At one point when they were eating, the food was so spicy that Bakura's eyes almost popped out Ryou laughed at his expression with Marik but he became abnormally quiet after that. He barely even touched his food and did join in the conversation. The other two noticed his weird behavior and glanced at him worriedly.

"Ok, what is it?" Bakura asked sounding annoyed. Ryou looked up from his plate and sighed.

"This isn't supposed to be a holyday trip…"

The two glanced at each other. "Well, technically it isn't."

"Why are we acting like it is then? Aren't we supposed to be sad? Yet here we are, having the time of our lives even though father is…" His voice trailed off and he looked back down.

"Hey, don't worry about it, I'm sure your father wouldn't want you to be sad." Said Marik placing a hand on Ryou's shoulder.

"Yeah, I know, but still…"

"Ok, from now on we'll be morbid, nobody smile or anything." Bakura said and they did just that. No one smiled or said anything in a cheerful voice. All talking was done in a quiet voice and they all had to look sad at all times. This actually made Ryou feel better again.

"Ryou, do you miss Yuugi?" Bakura suddenly asked, remembering that he still had to question Ryou about what happened with his "friend".

"It's hardly been one day, not yet I think. Why do you ask?"

"What? Aren't you supposed to miss your _lover_ when you're away from them?" Bakura asked casually and both Ryou and Marik almost choked on their food.

"What?" Asked Marik when he managed to breath again, Ryou just stared his brother in disbelief.

"I saw you. Why didn't you say anything?"

"Well… You don't like Yuugi so I thought that you would be… upset." Said Ryou quietly.

"I'm more upset of you not telling me! Did you thought that I would, like, deny you from being with him or something?"

"Bakura… You're causing a scene." Informed Marik, who looked around and saw that most people were now looking at them.

"I don't care!" Snapped the teen.

"I'm sorry for not telling you, ok? Can we not talk about this here?" Said Ryou desperately.

"Fine, we'll talk back at the hotel."

They left quickly and headed back to the hotel to talk things through.

………………………………..

It was the day of the funeral and the two brothers were just getting ready to go. Yesterday it seemed like the hell would brake loose but eventually it didn't. Ryou had feared that his brother would not approve and he still didn't like the idea but couldn't tell Ryou that he couldn't be with Yuugi, that would have broke his heart. Ryou convinced him that the other boy would never hurt him and, as he shyly added, they loved each other. They had been together for some time now, the other friendship gang knew about it and Bakura had really been to only one who didn't. But now that it was no longer the case, Ryou felt much more at ease.

"We should get going already." Informed Ryou, who glanced nervously at his watch. "We can't be late…"

"Yeah, yeah. Wait a sec." Bakura fought with his tie. "God dammed…"

"Need help with that?" Marik came to his rescue and shooed the other's hands away, helping with the tie. "You're hopeless 'Kura."

"Gee, thanks…" Sarcasm could be detected in the voice.

"Come on guys." Ryou reminded that they had to get going, well, Bakura and him had to, Marik would stay at the hotel and wait for them.

"Done! No, wait." Marik didn't let go of the tie when Bakura tried to leave but pulled him back into a kiss.

"Come on, Romeo!" Ryou said impatiently from the door and they pulled away.

"Oh but I'm pained to leave my Juliet. Ouch!" Marik had whacked him on the arm for the comment and he took it as a sign to get going.

"Ok, bye!" And with that they left.

Marik wondered what he could do now that he was alone. He ended up fiddling with the souvenirs they had bought the other day. Soon, however, they stopped interesting him. He lay on his bed and gazed blindly at the sealing, the air conditioner making it's sound in the background. He just thought of everything that had happened these past few days, so much had changed… Marik sighed and decided that maybe it was best if he took a small nap.

………………………………..

In the funeral everyone expressed their sympathy, even the people they had never even met, probably some of their father's coworkers. Despite the hot sun everyone was wearing black, sweat was running down several faces but the only one who was openly crying was Ryou. The boy wept as the coffin was put into the hole on the ground and covered. Bakura who was standing next to him laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, Ryou looked up at his brother who wasn't looking at him but didn't remove his hand. Ryou placed his hand on top of his brother's and squeezed gently. The little gesture meant a lot to him.

After the ceremony the people were slowly starting to leave, Ryou wanted to stay for a bit longer and his brother stayed with him. Bakura couldn't just leave him alone now of all times after all. Though unlike his brother, he wasn't really sad, he hadn't been sad when he learned of their father's death and he wasn't sad now, except maybe for Ryou.

"Do you miss him?" Bakura asked from his brother who still had tears in his eyes.

"Yes, a lot…"

"I don't. I didn't miss him when he went away on a trip and I'm not going to start now. It's like he's on a permanent trip."

Ryou nodded. He knew this already and didn't hold a grudge against his brother for not being sad or missing their father. Bakura had been that way for long and Ryou doubted that he would ever change though now that Marik was around he had just a bit.

"Are you ready to go?" Bakura asked. Ryou sent a last glance on the grave before they left.

………………………………..

_Everything was white. Not pleasant white like snow but annoyingly bright white, like in a hospital. Sterile. Too clean. It pierced his eyes and almost made him blind. Suddenly in the distance a door opened and black light poured into the white space, tainting it, making it easier on the eye. _

_An echo was heard in the space and soon Marik was wrapped in a warm embrace. He felt safe and relaxed. Then before he knew it the embrace was starting to fade. He felt so cold suddenly and shivered violently. Why was he alone again? The blinding whiteness was back and even though he tried to close his eyes, the white light still stung his eyes._

"_Don't go…!" He whispered into the space but no answer returned to him. Not a sound was heard until a harsh laughter filled the silence, making Marik shield his ears but it was no use. He could still hear it in his head, the laugh that would forever consume him._

……………………………….…

Marik woke up violently, sitting up on the bed, breathing heavily. He knew exactly who had left him in the dream, no, nightmare, and couldn't stand the thought of it. Then he realized what had really woke him up; a knock on the door. A louder knock was heard and he went to get the door. Who could that be? Bakura and Ryou had keys to the room and he wasn't expecting them back yet. Someone knocked again.

"I'm coming!" He yelled at the impatient person and quickly went to open. He peeked behind the door and was shocked to see who it was.

"Ishizu!" He breathed at the sight of his sister. His sister pushed in to the room without a word and sat on a bed, looking at him as if expecting an explanation. "How did you find me?"

"You are in no position to ask questions!" Ishizu snapped. "What were you thinking? Running away like that… We were worried!"

Marik glared at her and she glared right back. "I couldn't stay home either! I wanted to get away, okay? I'm sorry I worried you but I had to leave for a while."

"Why? Why couldn't you stay home?" She asked desperately, not understanding. Marik sighed and sat besides her.

"You were smothering me… I had no choice." Then he added, "And, I think, I mean… My other didn't leave me alone…"

Ishizu looked horrified. "You mean…? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't want you to know… Bakura offered me a way out, I just took it. He has been leaving me alone since I left, too."

"It's always that Bakura… You should have told us!"

"I know! And of course it's always Bakura! I think I…" He let his voice trail of, not quite sure if he should admit it aloud yet.

"You what?" Ishizu asked, wanting him to continue.

"I think I might…"

………………………………..

The two brothers were on their way back to the hotel. They had gotten a cab from the graveyard and were almost there. They hadn't spoken since they left the grave but maybe it was better not to, not right now. They needed to sort their thoughts out before they had to get back to Japan.

Bakura wondered what Marik was doing and how would things be once they got back… Ishizu would be pissed no doubt… She would probably ban them from ever seeing each other again. He couldn't have that, he couldn't go back to his life without Marik, the other was an important part of his life now.

They arrived to the hotel, got out and paid the driver. They took the elevator up and Bakura immediately took off his black jacket and tie. When they reached the door of their room, just before Bakura opened it with his key, he heard voices speaking behind it. There was a voice he recognized as Marik's and then there was a woman's voice. Marik was shouting something when Bakura pressed his ear against the door to hear better.

"Bakura, what-?" Ryou started to ask but was silenced by his brother.

"I know! And of course it's always Bakura! I think I…" Bakura heard Marik's voice trail off. What? He wanted to know how that sentence ended!

A woman's voice spoke, now Bakura recognized her as Ishizu. "You what?" The right question exactly. Ryou too pressed his ear against the door now.

"I think I might…" Started Marik's voice. "I think I love him…" Bakura's eyes went wide and he gasped. Ryou didn't look surprised the least, he just smiled happily.

"What?" Ishizu yelled and Ryou took his cue to twist the doorknob and sent his brother stumbling in. The two occupants of the room looked at him surprised. Bakura just stared at Marik.

"Is that true?" He asked quietly.

"You mean you heard?" Marik asked and blushed.

"Is it?"

"Well, yes… It's true."

Bakura practically ran across the room and jumped on Marik, starting to kiss him. Ryou smiled, Ishizu stared in shock and Marik kissed back happily. With the two being so occupied with each other, Ryou went next to Ishizu, to calm her and to speak with her. He had befriended her while his brother worked at the museum, when he had went to see him and he had been too busy, Ishizu almost always had time to keep him company.

Ryou coughed to get the attention of the two. They turned to him, wearing stupid grins.

"Maybe you should continue when you're private." Ryou suggested politely.

"…Yes, my thoughts exactly." Ishizu agreed.

"Ishizu?" Marik questioned his sister, sounding unsure.

"There's nothing you can do to separate us now!" Declared Bakura and held Marik possessively and he nodded.

"Just look at them, don't they just look too cute?" Ryou showed a picture to Ishizu.

"Hey, what's that?" Asked Bakura and Ryou shoed him a picture where Marik slept with his head on his shoulder and Bakura had his head on top of Marik's. It was the picture Ryou had taken on the plane on the way to Egypt.

"Well, I…"

"Ishizu." Marik spoke. "I don't think I can come home… I love you both but I need to get away for a while, away from my other…"

"And I'll be the one to take you." Bakura said. Ryou raised an eyebrow. "What? I meant I'll be the one to take him _away_. Since when was your mind so dirty?" Ryou smiled and shrugged a bit.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Marik said, joining to the people smiling. "Ishizu?"

"You will have to finish high school." She just stated but the under lining message was clear.

"I promise! Thank you!" Marik wanted to hug his sister but then realized that he couldn't keep holding on to Bakura and do that at the same time.

"You just hold him but Bakura." Ishizu turned to Bakura. "If you hurt him in anyway, I will hunt you down and-."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You're going to make me regret the day I was born." He interrupted.

"Exactly." Ishizu said and actually smiled at him.

"Don't worry, Ishizu." Bakura told and turned to Ryou who had a permanent smile on his face now, it seemed. "Ryou…"

"Don't worry about it Bakura." Ishizu said and placed a hand on Ryou's shoulder. "I'll promise to take care of him." She reassured.

"And tell Yuugi that if he hurts you I will-."

"Hunt him down, right?" Ryou interrupted with a smile.

"Yes, basically."

"Enough threats already!" Marik shouted, bored in everyone threatening each other.

"Ok…" Bakura agreed and bent down to steal a kiss.

"Good… I've been meaning to ask you something, though the answer is kind of obvious now."

"Yes?"

"Which way do you swing?" Marik asked and Bakura smirked at him.

"I swing your way babe." He said while still smirking and leaned to kiss the other again.

"Geesh, this is like form one of my gay porn novels…" Ishizu mumbled and Ryou looked at her strangely for a second before agreeing with her.

The End

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**A/N: **Yes, yes, yes, yes! Whooooooooooo! I'm finally done! Hell yeah! That took me insanely long to write and the final chapter is so long. Over five pages and my normal chap. is about four. I hope you liked :) Bakura's last line was something I'm been wanting him to say for a while, I just had to get it in somewhere :) How did you like the ending? Tell me, tell me! Hated it? Liked it? 

**Please review!**


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